Christmas Shopping when you have it all

Looking for a Christmas present for the man who has it all?

You could do a lot worse than directing your browser to the Disposal Services Authority.

The former British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible is currently up for sale (by tender only, no eBay last-minute sniping on this old duchess). Comes complete with a full and illustrious service history. The only slight snag is that its description reads like that of a used car in need of some serious TLC: “engines removed, generators generally unserviceable or unusable”. And of course, as with the most annoying childhood toys, the sale is only for the base and you have to pay extra for the planes to fly off it. Staffing costs might add up too.

But with more defence cuts looming, both the seamen and planes will soon be up for sale, so as long as you budget carefully, you could collect them over the course of next year. Sort of like those magazines where each issue comes with one part of collection to be completed over the publishing run.

If you have some spare change burning a hole in your pocket, and an equally burning desire for your personal private blue-water navy, then perhaps this is the weekend hobby project for you. Might be a trifle big to fit under the Christmas tree though.

The Higher Path

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Psychoanalysis is a technique to cure excessively suffering individuals of the unconsciously misdirected desires and hostilities that weave around them their private webs of unreal terrors and ambivalent attractions. The patient released from these finds himself able to participate with comparative satisfaction in the more realistic fears, hostilities, erotic and religious practices, business enterprises, wars, pastimes and household tasks offered to him by his particular culture.

But for the one who has deliberately undertaken the difficult and dangerous journey beyond the village compound, these interests too are to be regarded as based on error.

With these words in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell describes the two types of journey most humans travel on through their lives, and the different ways they can react to therapy.

One group – the majority – seek out only a return to a shared delusion of normality: “the last projected fantasies of primitive physical will to live like other human beings; the will to live according to normal motives of desire and hostility, in a delusory ambient of phenomenal causes, ends and means”. This is nothing more than procrastination, but many people are not ready for something more, and at least it allows them to function within society.

Another group seek something higher. The subconscious conflict they feel between a yearning for life/flesh and a wish for death/peace is such that before they can return to the normal world, they must walk a different path. Many religions attempt to find a solution by theorising that the mortal life is fundamentally flawed (“sinful”), only to be redeemed after death; or that a true understanding of life can only come about through leaving behind physical limitations and accepting a transcendental unity (Buddhism). Clearly, these can be interpreted as two sides of the same coin.

Can this sense of tranquillity with existence be achieved during life itself? Again, I find myself returning to Epicurus for an answer:

• We must free ourselves from the prison of everyday affairs and politics
• The tranquil man is not troublesome to himself or to another
• There is also a limit to frugality. The man unable to consider this suffers a similar end as the man who indulges in excess
• The greatest fruit of self-sufficiency is freedom

All are taken from the Vatican Sayings, but I have taken the liberty of re-ordering them to make this point: the more the noble soul involves himself in the affairs of those trapped in unhappy states, the unhappier he will become. That does not mean he looks down on others, but simply recognises he operates differently. By limiting his exposure to the necessary minimum for his needs, he will be as free as possible.

And from freedom, comes tranquillity, or true happiness.

Death of the Christmas card; lessons for social networks

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That reliable old standby of annual fundraising, the charity Christmas card, is skating on thin ice.

Oxfam expect to earn £100k less this year compared to five years ago because fewer of us are sending out Christmas cards. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to them, or indeed anyone else, and they will simply have to find new revenue streams.

Christmas cards used to be a way of communicating with those we hadn’t spoke to in year, letting them know we were still alive and well, and the tradition of a little note summarising the year’s events added a little colour to that duty. These days, with the ease of long-distance communication through telephone, email, and internet, as well as the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the annual Christmas card seems archaic.

When you factor in concerns about the environment, and the sheer stultifying labour involved in writing and posting Christmas cards, it’s not surprising their circulation is in decline. There is no longer any novelty to contact with even distant friends and relatives, because contact is easy.

In fact, it can easily be argued that we have far too much information about them nowadays. Do people really care about what someone else – even a friend – is doing from one hour (or minute!) to the next?

We have replaced occasional superficial contact with frequent superficial contact. That is not an improvement.

Social networking does not encourage true conversations between human beings, but a variant of continuous transmission communication, with only coincidental and fleeting interaction. It is very efficient in terms of time, but wasteful in terms of effort.

The concept of continuous transmission communication is neatly described in Isaac Asimov’s short story “My Son, the Physicist“. The story revolves around the difficulty a physicist has in communicating with a team of astronauts sent to explore Pluto. Radio communications between Earth and Pluto take 12 hours each way, so meaningful conversation is impossibly delayed. The physicist is still struggling with this problem when his mother visits. In a somewhat sexist reveal, she tells him to instruct the astronauts to continuously send data to Earth, and that Earth should do the same. Arguing that it’s likely that both sides of the conversation will want to discuss similar topics, the rate of exchange of information would be greatly enhanced by this method. Each side would then be able to continuously modify their own transmissions in light of the time-delayed information received.

This compresses the time required to exchange information and so increases efficiency of transmission. However, a vast amount of redundant data will also be sent, and  truly meaningful interaction will be reducing to “glancing blows”.

This is very much the nature of much modern communications: in an effort to increase speed, the signal-to-noise ratio drops precipitiously, and filtering mechanisms are needed to weed out irrelevant garbage from the vast quantity of incoming data. These filters are being developed but are still in their infancy, and the long-term survival of social networking sites depends upon it.

There is still a belief that people want to share more, but really, they want to share better. Without better filters, I cannot think that people will put up with an incessant flow of triviality for long and Facebook and Twitter will eventually saturate and then decline.

I intend to continue to steer clear of most of these chaff-based social networking sites until these filters are more advanced, as I cannot be bothered to separate the wheat out myself.  Just as with Christmas cards, I value my time too much for that. But if I like you, rest assured that you’ll still get a nice present!

Related Articles

• Christmas card slump: High price of cards and stamps blamed for decline in festive greetings (dailymail.co.uk)
• Christmas cards in terminal decline (telegraph.co.uk)

Stealth Wealth Style Guide

Let me be clear: I am not a fan of stealth wealth.

Oh, I admire those with genuine stealth wealth style. The unobtrusive, casual, and subtle display of the good things in life is elegant and natural in that milieu. What I detest is the aping of these style markers by those without the budget to truly sustain it, and without the education and life perspective to match it.

When stealth wealth markers are deliberately sought out solely for their utility as stealth wealth markers (ie as a style choice), the resultant display radiates an aura of inauthenticity, of calculated deliberation, and of bourgeois social climbing. This is the very antithesis of true stealth wealth and these copyists are almost always easily detectable from their body language and from a moment’s conversation.

My own inclinations hew far more closely to a more foppish, dandyish manner of dress. I have a love of flair and eccentricity, which reflects my personal outlook on life, and I would get terribly bored wearing items consistent with a stealth wealth approach.

However, from browsing my site stats here, I know I regularly get readers arriving at this blog searching for “stealth wealth” as I have mentioned the term before. If you are one of those readers, I hope this article gets you to think about whether stealth wealth is the most authentic way for you to dress. Does it mesh smoothly with your lifestyle, your outlook, and your personality? If it does not, find your personal expression of style first, and then choose the clothing to match. Otherwise you will come across as fradulent, whatever you wear.

If the stealth wealth approach still appeals, its wardrobe can be remarkably concise. It emphasises quality and traditional good fit beyond range and scope, and eschews any major deviations from a unified personal aesthetic consistent with conservative, time-honoured cuts and silhouettes. Because of its relative brevity, it encourages spending more on each item, expecting that it will last a long time and benefit from the patina of age. It also rewards those who actively live in their clothes, not those who attempt to preserve them in aspic for fear of damaging them.

To start with, assuming an average professional career requiring business dress, I would suggest the following “starter” stealthy wardrobe:

• 3 suits – a solid mid-grey flannel, a navy herringbone worsted and a charcoal-grey worsted. The flannel will be used in the cooler months only. The navy and charcoal-grey should be in year-round weights.
• 2 odd jackets – a navy blazer in a year-round weight, and a slightly heavier tweed with a plaid pattern that’s interesting without being crazy.
• 4 pairs of odd trousers – chocolate-brown cords, light grey wool flannels, tan cotton chinos, beige or mocha linen. The cords and flannels are for the cooler months, the chinos and linens are for the rest of the year.
• 2-3 pairs of shoes – black cap-toe oxfords, brown wingtips, brown/dark-burgundy loafers, all made on a classic last with a minimum of excessive antiquing. Belts to match, so one black calf, one brown calf, and if you opted for burgundy loafers, you’ll also need a belt for that.
• 5 business-friendly shirts – cotton, predominantly white or pale-blue and certainly no unusual colours. If you opt for double/French cuffs on these rather than buttons, you’ll also need cufflinks, but one pair of sterling silver knots or double-sided gold/onyx ovals (depending on preference) will suffice.
• 5 more casual shirts – 4 cotton, one linen. Again, predominantly white or pale-blue, though larger-scale patterns and some more colour is acceptable.
• 5 ties – solid navy silk grenadine, solid grey cashmere, navy silk with a small-scale pattern (eg white dots), dark burgundy silk with a small-scale pattern (preferably different from the navy silk), diagonally-striped (“regimental”/”repp-stripe”) tie in muted earthy colours
• 3 pocket squares (optional) – solid cream/white, a multi-coloured pictorial design (the design itself won’t show when in the pocket, but many colours will give it versatility), one other of your choice that co-ordinates with the other colours you’ve chosen
• navy or maroon socks with a minimum of pattern – as many as you need

That’s it. If you are younger or have more casual occasions to attend, you will likely also need a pair of conservative, trim dark-indigo jeans, a pair of dark-brown sturdy chelsea boots and a smart casual jacket/coat of some sort. If you live in a cool climate, you’ll also need a dark business-friendly overcoat or two, and a couple scarves and pairs of leather gloves. Of course, you’ll also need a few other accessories like a discreet simple watch, pen, and so forth.

The cost of that wardrobe is somewhere around £15k, assuming mid-priced Savile Row bespoke for the suits and jackets, Jermyn Street-quality made-to-measure for the shirts, and good ready-to-wear quality for the rest (eg Edward Green or John Lobb Paris for the shoes, Drakes for the ties and accessories).

£15k is of course expensive. But this is stealth-WEALTH, after all. Running costs will be relatively low, as good items will last a long time, and their lifetime can be extended further by adding similarly discreet additional items at a slow rate over the years.

If you do it on the cheap, I really think you miss part of the point of the aesthetic. You may replicate the superficial look, but will it feel the same on you? Will the psychological effect on yourself and others be the same? Perhaps, but I think not in the majority of cases. You will obtain a very presentable wardrobe and look very smart, but something vital will be missing.

Too many apers of this stealth wealth aesthetic think that merely obtaining the look is enough. It is not. The look is completely secondary to the intent, and if they conflict you will never feel comfortable in your clothes. I would not be comfortable wearing stealth wealth because, at heart, while I can admire the look, I cannot not love it. It is too restrained for me, and I would feel that I was attempting to live according to someone else’s aesthetic if I wore it.

The photo illustrating this article is Chris Plummer, dressed for his role as banker (and former Nazi collaborator) Arthur Case in the movie Inside Man. Almost everything he wears fits the stealth-wealth aesthetic, with the possible exception of his tie-pin. The character has deliberately adopted the aesthetic as part of creating a new respectable life for himself.

Euro Crisis: Domino Rally meets High Stakes Poker

Ireland has now followed Greece’s example in accepting a bailout after acknowledging that it cannot continue propping up its failed “economic miracle”. This does not surprise me, and in fact I discussed the intrinsic problems of Euro earlier this year.

More detail can be found in that article, but the crux of my opinion is that currency/monetary union without fiscal union – and inevitable full political union – is completely unsustainable. The market will always identify countries of relative economic weakness within the Eurozone. When these countries had their own currency, they could allow the currency to weaken to compensate for that weakness, as well as setting an interest rate suitable to their own peculiar conditions. Being part of the Euro, they lose this flexibility as the Eurozone interest rate will always be set to favour the Eurozone as a whole (de facto the large economies of France and Germany) while still being unable to benefit from the perceived fiscal stability of those larger countries in the bond market.

There are only a handful of routes out of this structural crisis:

1. Blind luck/bluffing – this is the route the EU is currently desperately pursuing. They hope that by successively bailing out bankrupt peripheral countries, and so displaying confidence in the Euro system, they can ride out the storm, allowing the wider economy to recover in time to prevent a catastrophic collapse. Economically this is very risky, as contagion has already spread from Greece to Ireland and Portugal is next in the firing line. If Portugal falls, the much larger Spanish economy will be next in the domino rally and its economy is too large for a bailout without bankrupting the entire Eurozone. This first option is however politically the easiest option, requiring little more than inertia, and so is the EU’s preferred strategy.
2. Full fiscal (& political) union – if this occured, the financial problem would be solved at a stroke. It would be the equivalent of the USA being able to absorb a downturn in one state by relying on its overall country-wide credit rating. While this makes financial sense, it is politically impossible to do quickly, and so is not a realistic option. There is also the question of whether the general public of the Eurozone countries would wish it, but EU governments have historically worried little about this, so we can consider their potential resistance a mere trifle.
3. Break up the Euro into two zones, with two floating currencies – This allows quarantining of the weak peripheral Euro economies from the strong core. There would be a weak currency for the peripheral economies and a second, stronger one for the core economies. Over time, countries would be able to migrate from the weak currency to the strong one, once their economies truly stabilised. The EU would hate this option, as it would mark a significant reverse in overall EU project. There is also the question of whether it would work financially, as the weaker zone may simply bankrupt itself anyway and still come crawling for a bailout from the stronger zone.
4. Expel weak countries from the Euro - this would force them to revert to their national currencies. This would serve to separate the weaker economies in a more drastic way than option 3. It would have many of the same political and financial drawbacks, but would probably be seen as more financially credible, as well as providing a genuine incentive for high-spending debt-ridden peripheral Euro countries to finally curb their state spending.

It is difficult to see the future clearly, but my hunch is that if option 1 continues to be followed, Portugal will end up accepting a bailout within months. To use a bit of poker terminology, we will then be in a heads-up, all-in situation with Spain. If the markets call the EU’s bluff, and Spain is unable to finance itself, the bailout costs will cripple the EU for a generation and the sustainability of the Euro will be seriously questioned. Chances are, it would collapse.

If Spain holds the line, these questions may still be raised, but the financial imperative will be removed and the EU will continue to drift towards greater political integration, solving the longer term economic problem at the expense of national sovereignty.

Chancellor George Osborne declared earlier today, in justifying the UK’s loan to Ireland despite his long-standing scepticism of the Euro, that “I told you is not much of an economic policy“. This is true, but those of us who have shared his Euroscepticism and foresaw the problems of monetary union without fiscal/political union, will still be feeling regret that others did not see the situation in the same light. Incidentally, the drivers of the EU integration project have always recognised the need for both, though they have tried to downplay it for fear of scaring national electorates.

We’re entering the endgame. The future of the Euro hangs in the balance. Personally, as the UK remains outside the Eurozone and this mess will ensure we stay out of it for years to come, I don’t really care what the outcome is, as long as the decisions are made swiftly and with conviction. We’ll still be affected here in the UK regardless of Euro membership, of course; the Eurozone is a key trading partner. But as we’re outside the Eurozone, the damage can at least be minimised and absorbed nationally.

I just want certainty, one way or another; the current death of a thousand cuts is not good for the market.

Related Articles

• Ireland’s huge bailout brings the country only brief respite (guardian.co.uk)
• IMF and EU bail out Ireland amid fears of Eurozone contagion (guardian.co.uk)
• IRELAND BAILOUT: Government in crisis after coalition partner calls for election (dailymail.co.uk)

Oh no, not the 70s again!

The Decade that Style Forgot is back in fashion, and even more unfortunately, it’s made it back to the High Street so now every woman will access it.

Middle-class retail bellwether Marks & Spencers unveiled its Spring 2011 collection and it is chock-full of 70s references. More photos of the collection can be found here, if you dare.

A cursory inspection suggests that they have taken all the worst elements from recent catwalk trends, combined them with the inevitable compromises required to fit the body of an average woman, and produced a collection of mediocrity that will soon be worn by millions up and down the country. The 70s revival just about works on the catwalk, where models have the build to make willowy flowing looks like these attractive. But transpose these items onto women with more typical physiques and the results will not be nearly as pretty, and the difference will be far more stark with these styles than many others.

I really enjoyed seeing elements of 80s fashion return over the past few years or so. We saw the return of some fun silhouettes, vibrant colours with neon and metallics, and some amusing stylistic quirks like legwarmers and heavy shoulderpads, interpreted in a youthful, modern way. But I cannot understand what it is about 70s fashion that appeals: the silhouettes are unflattering, the colours and patterns either unpleasant or drab, and the backdrop of the decade had few redeeming features, at least in this country: rolling blackouts, industrial action, stagflation and spiralling national debts leading to bailouts and austerity measures…

… OK, well, the macroeconomic parallels are enough to see why the decade is being revisited in the current zeitgeist, but couldn’t we leave the 70s fashions behind?

Related Articles

• Spring Is Basically All 70s, All The Time At Chris Benz [Fashion Show] (jezebel.com)
• Shall we disco? Fashion Week embraces ’70s muse (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Derek Lam S/S11 (dazeddigital.com)
• Marc Jacobs’ Latest Isn’t Particularly Inspired, But It’s Gorgeous Nonetheless [Fashion Show] (jezebel.com)

Is the UN responsible for Haiti’s cholera epidemic?

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It’s an appalling thought: are UN peacekeepers, in Haiti since the 2004 Rebellion and providing humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of January earthquake and the more recent hurricane-induced flooding, responsible for the cholera epidemic now sweeping across that nation?

It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds; the circumstantial evidence is there:

• the strain of cholera responsible for killing over a thousand and hospitalising tens of thousands so far is not endemic to Haiti, but is endemic to South East Asia. The Nepalese UN peacekeepers are from that region.
• Nepal has recently suffered its own cholera outbreak, and so peacekeepers arriving in Haiti may well have been subclinical carrier of the Vibrio cholerae bacterium responsible for the disease
• the outbreak is centred on the Artibonite River, and their base is located on that river.

The suggestion is that these peacekeepers inadvertantly contaminated the Artibonite. Poor sanitary conditions secondary to population displacement caused by the earthquake gave cholera the opportunity to take root, and then the flooding caused by Hurricane Tomas permitted further spread by breaching the barriers separating sewage from drinking water.

The case isn’t proven, despite the circumstantial evidence. Full genomic analysis is probably needed and we may never know for sure. But it would be a tragic and shocking example of the Law of Unintended Consequences if the UN turned out to be responsible.

Even if not proven, the damage may already be done. News reports this evening show scenes of violence as many Haitians lose confidence in the UN mission, setting a police station ablaze and threatening to torch a UN compound before being broken up by gunfire and tear gas.

If the civil disturbance escalates – and Haiti as a country is broken and superstitious enough to provide little restraint from railing against those in authority – then the UN mission will be faced with a stark choice: be forced to leave the country under intense public pressure, likely causing Haiti to collapse further into ruin; or crush the protests and effectively become an arm of the state. Which would you choose?

The only alternative hope is to contain the cholera outbreak and so defuse the building tension… but cholera is  a notoriously difficult tenant to evict.

Related Articles

• Haiti cholera epidemic: UN rejects accusations peacekeepers spread disease (telegraph.co.uk)
• Haiti’s president warns violence over cholera outbreak will not be tolerated (guardian.co.uk)
• You: 7 U.N. troops hurt, attacked by Haitians blaming foreigners for cholera epidemic (washingtonpost.com)
• Haiti cholera protest targets UN (bbc.co.uk)

Everyone loves a Royal Wedding

It seems keeping secrets is still possible in our modern world.

Until the news broke with an official statement at 10.30, no-one knew that Prince William was engaged to his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton. That in itself is worth noting, given how frequently and easily official secrets leak out to the media.

It’s also striking just how welcome the news is to almost everyone. Let’s take a look at all the delighted vested interests:

The Royal Family – always in need of good PR, especially in recent years. They will be hoping that this results in some degree of stability to the future of the Monarchy, and there’s little doubt that William and Kate (sorry, Princess Catherine!) are a more attractive and personable couple to take centre stage in terms of the public image of the Royal Family than Charles and Camilla.

Politicians – Prime Minister David Cameron was apparently informed of the news by a surreptitiously-passed note in the middle of a Cabinet Meeting, and later made a public statement welcoming it as “a piece of unadulterated good news”. Given the necessary public spending cuts he’s having to make to reduce the deficit, and the general economic malaise despite a slow recovery, having something pleasant and fluffy like a Royal Wedding to talk about certainly helps. Politicians of all stripes enjoy a grand national event, as it gives them an opportunity to get wide media exposure with a minimum of controversy.

Businesses - It’s boom-time for the commemorative souvenier merchandising industry. There’s already the London Olympics in 2012 to gear up for, but with a Royal Wedding in 2011 too, we soon won’t be able to move for crested china cups and tea-towels. The betting industry will also be happy to have another grand event to take bets on, the Queen’s hat colour, the type of wedding dress, and more. Talking of the dress, you can rest assured that the bridal industry will be in a state of high hysteria from now until the wedding. They’ll be joined by the glossy magazine publishing industry in swooning over every new announced detail.

Republicans - those against the Monarchy will also be secretly happy about the wedding, as it will automatically give them a little bit more oxygen of publicity. Saying vaguely controversial things about the wedding and its cost will now garner more column inches.

Terrorists and protestors - those unhappy with the government, or the country itself, will be thrilled to have a new event to target. Expect stringent security around the Wedding itself, but any major terrorist event on (or around) the date of the Wedding will gain much airtime and may be much harder to stop given that resources will inevitably be pulled towards the gravity well of the Wedding itself.

The Media – lazy journalists and rolling news channels around the world will be rejoicing at the ready-made stories and headlines that will easily fill any blank space or airtime from now until next Summer. And the Wedding Day will doubtless have sky-high TV ratings. I’m sure Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress as well as other online news and discussion sites will be experiencing traffic spikes, and so page/ad views.

So, you see, everyone has a reason to be happy…

Rejoice, Rejoice, again I say, Rejoice!

Related Articles

• GUEST LIST: Will Obamas attend royal wedding? (politico.com)
• Royal wedding: David Cameron congratulates Prince William and Kate Middleton (telegraph.co.uk)
• Royal wedding: Kate Middleton’s relationship with the press (telegraph.co.uk)
• Royal Wedding Bells: Prince William, Kate Middleton to Wed (abcnews.go.com)
• Prince William, Kate Middleton ENGAGED: Royal Wedding Next Year (huffingtonpost.com)

Miserere Mei – Church v State

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The oldest extant statute in English law is the Distress Act of 1267, specifying as it does the requirement for plaintiffs to pursue claims for damages (“distresses”) through the courts, rather than attempt to extort them by other means.

The Distress Act is part of the Statue of Marlborough issued by King Henry III. While the Distress Act contains the only laws not since repealed or superseded in the intervening centuries, other elements of the Statute of Marlborough took a long time to disappear from our legal system.

One such area was Benefit of Clergy, a provision originally enacted by Henry II, grandfather of the aforementioned Henry III. Prior to Henry II’s reign, English courts were presided over by both a representative of the Church and a representative of the state. Henry II was nothing if not a builder of centralised state power and disliked what he perceived as an infringement of ecclesiastical authority upon secular matters of crime and punishment. His creation of law courts without Church representation led to a power struggle with his former friend Thomas Becket, by then Archbishop of Canterbury but known to all schoolchildren since as a turbulent priest killed by miserable drones.

Becket in death achieved something he failed to during life. The public outcry over his murder was such that Henry was forced to permit the Church its own separate ecclesiastical courts, and any member of the clergy could choose to be tried under this system instead of by the secular state. This was much to the accused’s advantage as the ecclesiastical courts were generally far more lenient in both their trials and their punishments.

To gain this Benefit of Clergy, a priest had to demonstrate that he was indeed a man of the cloth. Initially this was done quite literally, by turning up appropriately garbed in religious clothes and with a tonsured head. This was later broadened into a literacy test, which allow educated laymen to also be tried under ecclesiastical court authority. The literacy test chosen was, appropriately enough, the ability to read from the Bible. Technically any section could be chosen… but the English legal system has always had a fondness for theatricality and ironic whimsy; Psalm 51 became the perennial favourite:

Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam

 

O God, have mercy upon me, according to thine heartfelt mercifulness

Despite being watered down over the years, Benefit of Clergy was not fully expunged from the English legal system until the relatively late date of 1823. But conflict between Church and State authority remains. The protection from the criminal justice system afforded to paedophile priests by some in the Catholic Church, the growing use of Islamic Sharia Law even in secular Muslim states, the increasing encroachment of fundamentalist values into politics in America, the tension between secular and religious elements in Gaza and the West Bank, Hindu nationalism in parts of India… I could go on, but the list will be all too familiar to those reading this entry.

I do not think there is necessarily something specific to religion that leads to these tensions. I prefer to think of the conflict as something to be expected when two competing spheres of authority attempt to exert power over the same system. While religious faith can give its adherents a fixity of belief that can sometimes override logic, the same is true of anyone with a strong belief system whether religious or secular. The political world – and any pub by around 10pm – is full of such people.

The lesson to be learnt from the ever-present conflict between religious authority and secular power is that a nation can never truly be ruled by one element alone; Man is neither wholly rational nor wholly emotional, but a complex amalgam of the two, with the balance continually shifting in response to intrinsic and extrinsic variables. A shrewd powerbroker knows when to appeal to one and when to use another, just as the wise man knows when to use logic and when to trust his instincts.

A Century of Remembrance

Image via BBC, click to go to source article

The above is a sobering depiction of British combat losses since the start of The Great War, and is an image worth studying on Remembrance Sunday. Apologies for not posting this article until so late in the day; I simply lacked the time to do so until now.

Sometimes a graphical depiction really can have more impact than a long essay, so this entry will be brief and I hope that the image does most of my talking for me. If I had to select key themes it would be just how devastating WWI was in terms of loss of life, even compared to WWII, and the extent to which post-WWII colonial conflicts cost lives.

I was also taken aback by the sheer number of lives lost in Northern Ireland during the euphemistically named “Troubles”. Because these deaths were spread out over decades, one could forget just how many soldiers died.

Northern Ireland also serves as a reminder that while Remembrance Day acts as an opportunity to acknowledge the military lives lost and pay our respects to their sacrifice, it can also act as a spur to remember and honour the civilian loss of life during conflicts too.