Celtic Whine

Ever have a little wonder to yourself just what is life all about? The great question, perhaps? I'm not to sure if Sherlock Holmes will even get to the bottom of it, but yet it's a reflective point in many people's lives, whether they care to admit it or not.
For most of my life I've been a thinker of some description, probably often guilty of an over-analysis on many things. Thinking about things that you have no power over is a harsh waste of time at the best of times. But once I started thinking more on what can be changed the buck stopped with me, and following a few lines of advice I'll keep to myself it was then I was able to start asking more important questions. Given the time I've had on my hands I've been able to go search for a few answers in various places. A little degree course of my own - without the degree.
If I was Bertie Ahern's honorary member for spin, I'd be writing a book about how his leadership was so great that he set the ball in motion for the Celtic Whine, so the masses could have more time to think and in a way force them from their slumber so a new form of Social Capitalism could have a breeding ground to thrive. Bertieism or Irishism or even Bertiesirishisms - My Deception For The Common Great. A Retrospective History. Part 1. If Bertie's reading, I'm serious!

Finding a way to live life in a more pro-active way isn't easy. It's alright living it, but it also has to sit right with you. I don't think too many bankers in Ireland loose much sleep so that tells me what they did sits OK with them. I'm sure politicians to a large degree feel the same. Bailed out developers as well. So it takes all sorts to make a society. By dividing society up into common segments might help, but we're too lazy in our thinking that it's not even a consideration.
Can't the greed mongers just play monopoly with themselves perhaps? Instead of it having to impact on everyone else. Perhaps those with hostile tendencies could be placed in the Amazon Jungle and let go wild on each other. We could set up a few landmasses for those who like to practice a bit of governance and the rest of us can govern ourselves. Get all the psychopaths to go play with themselves on some large island somewhere with the Crime & Investigation Channel keeping sketch big brother style. Let the ones that don't voluntarily go take their chances out in the real world with little kindness shown should they step out of line. Surely it makes sense to give it a go for a little stint. See how we all got on. What's there to lose?

I don't think people in general get enough credit. To much red tape placed in their way, too many negatives, too many barriers and it always leaves me asking, Why? What my conclusions are, are solely based on experiences I've had, but they're my conclusions and there is a great freedom in that. For that alone a little introspective retrospective on how to face the many challenges of life is worth the undertaking. If you stumble across an answer worthwhile, well wohoo!

In a really bad year I was glad to see Irene pass over the East Coast of America without bringing the horrors of Katerina back to the eyes of the world again so soon. It just once again proves how fragile we are to the elements of nature. We pale into insignificance. The challenge of course is a removal of that fragility, so you'd again question why we don't bother. Even our leaders are not bothering. That alone leads off into Jesse Ventura land and although I do look at the world of conspiracy theory sometimes, it's more a means of entertainment these days, because at the end of the day, as William Goldman once said, 'Nobody Knows Anything.' Well not enough anyway for it to make a blind bit of difference most of the time.

What I'm witnessing on Sky News about Libya in the past week is not only disturbing but it's also some of the best Propaganda I have ever witnessed via a mainstream News outlet. I'm sorry but when everything is being told from the one prospective you can smell the rat.
Last night they showed the charred skeletal remains of an act of genocide perpetrated by Pro-Gaddafi soldiers. This was at a time of the day when kids could be watching.
Let's be honest. Tripoli is lawless. I truly think it's a NATO botch job that's going to take years to rectify. They had no business going in there. There's no moral value when you reign down missiles on civilians.
It's oil, pure and simple. And then you consider that Libya own 5% of the World's gold reserves and you get another glimpse. Or the 110 billion in seized foreign assets. This probably sums it up best in any reading I've come across to date.
But the coverage is being taken to a new level in media-mogul land. The corporate belief is this sort of viewing satisfies some need in all humans that Freud referred to back in the last great recession/depression - pre World War II.
I know it doesn't satisfy any need in me but you would be safe enough saying it must be satisfying some one's corporate dollars, or euros or whatever single currency or World Order we end up with in the future. Six months ago Libya had it's troubles like most countries, look at it now. For democracy?

Bill Hicks was 93.3% right in all he said. I just plucked that figure out of my head. If academics can do it, then why not us?
Life - weird, wonderful, wacky and any other W you can think of. And absurd, of course! For all it's potential much is wasted one feels. It's difficult to ascertain from that, given the present state of affairs, what opportunities have been given up along the way and what the reasoning behind that is. It's hard to know if we will even last long enough to reach a common consensus into why that is. Absurdity provided me with a basis for accepting all the pieces that attempt to jig all of life's woes and wonder together. It also allows for a certain pathway that frees people looking for some meaning. That meaning is unique for everyone and there within lies an endless possibility as yet unclasped. Because that meaning is personal and to pursue it secures a certain freedom that just is not encouraged in modern day society to any significant degree. One can't blame Ireland for that, as Ireland is a follower in many respects. Our greatest success' have come when we chose to lead. Until we get back to that there seems little point staying here.

I went to a gig by three young bands in Dublin last night. Of varying talent. But through the music there was a togetherness there between the musicians and those there to see them. All the bands were in the 18 year bracket. Doing what it is they want to do. A realist tells its a tough arena but an idealist says 'Is there not something this.' In pursuing what it is you want to do in life and once it doesn't cause ill, then where's the harm? It's just not encouraged enough, is it? If kids are the future we should be doing a better service to them today.
Pen, instrument, paint, photo, animated porn, whatever it is. If it makes you happy or gives you a certain sense of freedom or contentment or extrasensory perception then why is it mostly alienated and created part-delusional by our more esteemed members of society who insist if you follow their way they've got your back. But looking around lads, i gotta call it as I see it, the delusion lies fully in those who lay waste to all of life and its potential. Perhaps it's for those very reasons. That those deemed worthy of providing direction don't want you having those senses. Which circles around to Why once again.

Life maybe but a game. Who knows? But as with all games that find an arena, they probably deserve to be played. That way it does not seem like such a test of endurance it can sometimes feel like. Well, that's been my experience anyway. If life is worth living then life is worth exploring and that opens up the world to people. So perhaps a little jaunt off down South for a few years won't do one any harm. I'll just have to figure it out as one wanders on. For the sake of a fresh prospective it can't do any harm either. So long as the plane don't come down. In the desert. I survive, trapped beneath a suitcase full of government farewell money, vultures circling above. Is that Elle McPherson off there in the distance? Or is it a mirage? Or both?
I can almost see it now. I'd be bound to score a seven figure advance for that one surely... and the cover of Time, fist on chin.
As much as it's important to keep it real, it also important not to take oneself especially serious. It's also important to remember that one writes different than ones speaks. And finally and most importantly, one must never give up the thinking behind why one calls one oneself at times when one is a number and not a member of the upper middle class. Or in today's speak, the Upper Middle Class, twice removed.

Have yourself a kooky week. Don't we deserve it once in a while?