Evil and the human suffering that goes with it is a strange thing to observe. With the constant news cycle there is no end to the evils that we read. Every day, every hour, new evil is uncovered, new evil that is really old evil, the same tired patterns endlessly repeating. It becomes a background to life and we become inoculated against caring because life is too short to take the time to feel the pain of everyone.
Then there comes an event of particular magnitude, evil beyond the usual and its as though all the unfelt injustice, all the unconsidered empathy, all the pain not shared, all of it gets rolled up into this one horrific event. The terrorist attack on Paris was such an event of particular evil, in a place not too far away, with acts of violence that given meaning to the word "senseless". The only purpose to cause as much human suffering as could be achieved. The immediate response I had was to pray: "Lord Jesus, come back soon." For seeing such evil, how could I ever want to see such a thing again? Better by far that the world end, that Jesus returns, that this present fallen world is done away with. Even if there are 10 billion more of God's elect still to be saved, it seems better to have the world end now.
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Despite my best intentions and concerted efforts at maintaining naivety, when it comes to the delicate matter of periods and tampons I am, through no desire of my own, very much a modern man. For example, I know that upon getting into a relationship one should download a tracker app, make discrete or not so discrete enquires, and then on a monthly(ish) basis supply flowers / chocolate / hot water bottle / sympathy as required. This knowledge was forced into my head by friends and sisters I should probably take the opportunity to thank right now and apologise for my reluctance to listen.
Still, it is with some surprise that I find myself writing on such a topic as a tampon tax. Then again, as an economist, tax has always held a fascination for me. In particular, the most remarkable aspect of the whole tampon tax debate is the extent of the anger it generates. A little bit of maths is in order here. All following figures are estimations gained from use of the internet. Hopefully they are still accurate. It was surprisingly hard to get concrete figures. It is generally considered that the tampon tax, at 5%, costs a woman anywhere from £0.98 to £6.00 a year (depending on the brand bought). The other day, I heard someone on TV said that women were not able to afford food because of the tampon tax. Now, if by food what was meant was 1 to 1.5 Sainsbury Meal Deals a year, then this fact might be considered correct. As a general observation, this is a tiny amount of money even for the poorest of society. Hear now, the wisdom on Boromir: "One does not simply..." And when it comes to the migrant crisis much has been said of the simple solution. Petitions for the UK to open its arms to the migrants almost outnumber the number of people signing them. I agree with the moral sentiment but find the arguments so reductive that I've written this blog post to at least force others to think about the issue more deeply.
Consider an analogy: a man lies on the road bleeding from a wound at his side. As you approach he gasps "water!" Given the choice between a) stopping the bleeding or b) providing the man with water the kind and loving thing to do is stopping the bleeding. In fact, if you gave the man a drink and didn't stop the bleeding it would turn an otherwise kind act into an act of cruelty. To look it another way: treating symptoms is only a very short term measure; in the long term the root cause of a problem has to be dealt with. Like the glass of water, opening our borders to the migrants is a small token of kindness that does absolutely nothing to solve the migrant crisis. The more we welcome, the more will come, for what inspires these desperate people to leave their homes but hope? And the more we give, as a society, to welcome migrants in, the more will be demanded of us. Please, don't mistake me, this is not saying we shouldn't open our borders. But we need to do so fully aware of what a pathetic response it is, given the magnitude of the crisis. Yes. For thus said the wise man to the monkey: "Upgrade to Windows 10."
This opinion is not provided lightly, I've rigorously followed all my usual computer habits this week and given careful consideration to absolutely none of the thinking between the new Windows. Welcome, to the future of investigative journalism, ahead of schedule. My recommendation to upgrade is based on two reasons First, if you have Windows 8 you cannot be worse off for upgrading. You might think you've got a good thing but objectively, logically and by all that is sane and good, Winsows 8 is rubbish. Second, if like me, you have Windows 7 then you get a new feature of a customisable lock screen - which for me now shows Tintin and Snowy marching across a globe. You could argue that this is a shallow reason for recommending an upgrade. And you may well be right, but look at that movie poster, beautiful or what? And as with a lot of things in life, it's the little things that add the joy. For me, it's having the opportunity to geek out twice - once over my desktop background and once over my lock screen. Enjoyment of logging onto my computer has been effectively doubled. Not content with dealing with one controversial topic, this blog post addresses two with the side effect of doubling my capacity to offend. As always, I am more than happy to offend on an intellectual level for: "words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thought on the unthinking" (prize if you know who wrote this). I do not intend to offend on a personal level but given that I'm dealing with two identity issues perhaps some form of offence is unavoidable. Either way, I am asking you to accept on trust that these are not the angry typings of an armchair bigot but reflective musings on an extremely difficult topic.
At some point soon, as the transgender movement gathers momentum, men are going to realise that they make better women than women and feminism is going to die. To rephrase with a great deal more nuance: given the male centric value system of society today, masculine behaviours in a "woman's" body are valued more highly than feminine behaviours thus giving men a home field advantage when it comes to being women. This truth is crudely and cruelly parodied in the IT Crowd, where a transgendered woman drinks, burps and watches sport like a man and is therefore the best woman Douglas has ever met. The suggestion being that all men want is a woman's body to have sex with and a man's mind that can be easily understood. This reduces the complexity, awkwardness and mystery of heterosexual romance to nothing more than a farce. Women and men are meant to find each other difficult to understand because we are meant to be different, in how we think and feel. Let's start with a relatively uncontroversial example of how the transgender movement will effect women. The sports which are valued the most today are the ones which men are biologically best at. The sports where the genders do compete against each other are not the popular ones. So, in four years time, at the next women's world cup, it is easy to imagine the scenario where one country from the West fields a team of transgender women. If this happens, they win as their players will be faster, stronger and have more stamina because they remain biologically men even if they identify as women. So every other team would have to follow suit to compete. And then women's football is dead and buried, with women being driven out the market by transgendered women. Ironically, women's football would only exist in the countries that were "backwards" enough not to accept the transgendered movement. The other day, on a fine and glorious morning, I checked my privilege. Wallowing in an ivory bath of goat’s milk, sipping the curdled blood of cute puppies from a cup carved from the skull of a child labourer from some forsaken eastern country, as the dancing girls fanned me with rare feathers and the latest stock news blared out over the radio, I found my privilege to be of greater worth than the many bricks of gold stored in my Swiss vault.
Hello, my name is Ben and I am a Tory. According to the BBC, the Guardian and George Monbiot I am a climate change denying hound from the depths of a dark and terrible hell, a barbarian and cultural philistine and a throwback to an age best forgotten. The latest research suggests that 85% of my Facebook friends will read the opening paragraph and think it based on a real event. Privilege is something that is a thing, and the latest fad among the left is to check it on a regular basis, as though it were a medical condition. The purpose of checking ones privilege is self-censorship, for what else does the middle class left love to do but constrain and restrain debate? As a white, heterosexual male my privilege is so exceedingly great that I can express no opinion on women, racism or sexual equality. Which is exactly the kind of repression that women, racial groups and sexual minority groups have fought against. Oh blessed irony! For all my scorn there is an element of truth in this ridiculous fad: I live a privileged life. My income (which is below the UK average) puts me in the top 3% of world population, I am richer than 6.3 billion people. I am 58x times richer than a billion people. And with this larger income comes a lower proportion spent on food (20% compared to over 50%), an education level that also puts me in the top few percent of the world and twenty four years of peace, living in a country with a good justice system, a working democracy and large levels of infrastructure investment. All this leaves us with a pertinent and difficult question: why is life so unfair and what can be done about it? By the providence of God I was born into a prosperous life with over 6 billion people around me who are less well off. Having no control over so many aspects of my life, I have privilege that is indeed beyond measure. On Election Day, I rode to the polling station on a throne carried by the local poor people, with a cripple leading the way blowing a trumpet and shouting "Make way for this Conservative Voter." All well worth the £1.50 I paid him. Arriving at the polling station, I climbed down the backs of the poor to walk along a red carpet rolled out by a member of an ex-miners association, who was chained to a lamppost so he wouldn't do something violent. Handing my solid gold polling card to the lady at the table, I had a street urchin shine my shoes while I waited for my name to be scored off the list. Ballot paper in hand, I went to the booth, stabbed the urchin with a quill and put a X in blood next to the Conservative candidate.
Hello, my name is Ben, and I am a Tory. According to the internet, particularly Facebook, I hate, despise, oppress and seek to destroy: the poor, the disabled, the miners, the Scottish and the NHS. The latest research indicates that 80% of left wing people reading the above story will nod wisely and think: "Yes, I thought so." The vitriol and hatred displayed on a regular basis against Conservatives is a clear indication of a lack of understanding of Conservative principles and ideology. For it is easy to demean that which we do not understand and easy to simplify that which we put no effort into learning. Let's get the cold hard truth out here, wild assertions that all Conservatives hate the poor are as crass and unwelcome as any other kind of discrimination. A well reasoned argument as to why conservative policy might harm the poor is perfectly acceptable (if, as I would counter argue, wrong). Spurious nonsense about millions of Britons voting to kill disabled people is childish and limited. Why is the New Testament God so angry all the time? How can the Old Testament God be so loving? A common problem people have with the Bible is the disconnect between the loving and forgiving God of the Old Testament and the angry and wrathful God of the New Testament. How can one be so loving and kind and the other so cruel and capricious? The implication being, of course, that the Bible is completely wrong as a result of this seeming contradiction.
Let’s dive right in then and examine this disconnect between the New and Old. First up: the angry, wrathful, vengeful God of the New Testament. There’s no better to place to start than 2 Thessalonians, a book of the Bible which has proportionally more on Hell and judgement than any save perhaps Revelation. Take the following quote: “This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” 2 Thessalonians 1 v 7 – 8. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man wearing cute socks must be in search of a wife.
The other day, what should crop up of facebook but a link to a blog post the title of which went something like: "Why aren't men asking woman out any more?" I didn't read it, in my defence, I don't have to. The blog will contain some mediocre application of some Bible verses lifted out of context, a lot of complaining about men not being brave enough, modern culture ruining good old fashioned courtship and more than it's fair share of spurious nonsense coached in spiritual language. I may just have described my own blog there... Either way, the blog post was hardly what I would call a definite answer on the subject. No, for such profundity, please read on. Men are, after all, simple creatures and it should be down right easy to model their thought processes. A man will ask a woman out based on the following flowchart: Recently, I've had cause to think a lot about church. This is for the best of reasons - I'm really enjoying church right now. Moving to a new city and starting a new job has its hardships and a consistent high point of my week is attending Christ Church Bradford.
There are many reasons for this: the warmth, love and hospitality of other Christians, the solid preaching and teaching from the Bible, the richness of the prayers, the enthusiastic, if sometimes off kilter, singing (not that I can talk!). Mainly though, it is because I go to church and come away refreshed, feeling that Christ has ministered to my soul, that God was, in a very real way, present at the service. In a time and an age where the church gets a lot of bad press I think it necessary to stand up and say that church is often beautiful. Naturally, I immediately worry that it cannot last. And in this last week two separate thoughts have joined together on this worry. The first occured mid-week at home group where we looked at the parable of the mustard seed. "Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’" Mark 4 v 30 v 32. |
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