Monday 20 September 2010

None so blind as a Righteous on election day.

Glastonbury Abbey is a pile of old bricks. At night it can be extremely spooky indeed. So, it's an ideal backdrop for an interview about a spooky film.

However, the site means a lot to those who are Christian and using it to promote a film about witchcraft is going to upset them. That's obvious, it would be like advertising pork pies in a mosque or a synagogue. Therefore it's no surprise to find that the custodians of Glastonbury Abbey have apologised to Christians - presumably those on whom the custodians depend for routine income rather than occasional Hollywood income - for annoying them. Ignoring things that upset your core support group is no way to stay in charge.

None of those things would bother me at all but then I don't follow any religion so I have no holy sites or sacred places. I wouldn't be even slightly ruffled by hearing about a Sikh ceremony in Westminster Cathedral or a Buddhist celebration in every mosque in the land. The religious would be incensed but it wouldn't trouble me, and none of those who run those religious places would care about my thoughts on the matter because there is no chance of any support, moral or financial, from me anyway.

I don't care that much of the meat on sale in the UK is Halal. I eat meat. To achieve that end, something has to die. There's no point getting all precious about how it dies, it's going to die, have its skin ripped off, its intestines torn out and then chopped into bits and cooked. And yes, I have done this to living things and then eaten them. I am neither proud nor ashamed of it, it is just the way real life works. There are many animals in the world who would do the same to me. Torturing animals to death is sick and disgusting, anyone with an ounce of humanity wants the act of killing to be as swift as possible but the fact remains that if you want to eat meat, the animal has to die first. Unless it's oysters.

Halal is just a method of killing. It doesn't change the meat, it doesn't make it any more dead, and eating it won't fill you with the urge to grow a beard and blow something up.

It is very, very easy to avoid Halal meat when eating out. Order pork. If they don't sell pork products, eat somewhere else. Personally, if I was in the mood for a bacon roll, I'd go to places where I know I can get one and avoid places where I knew I wouldn't. It doesn't seem much of a chore to me. I know several places that produce fantastic bacon rolls. If they sell pork, they aren't Halal no matter where they source their meat.

So Halal doesn't annoy me, but it does annoy an awful lot of people. It annoys those of other faiths who don't want their food blessed by a god they don't believe in. It annoys many, many people who find the idea of killing an animal by slitting its throat barbaric and offensive. To find that they have been eating such meat without being aware of it is... well, imagine how a Muslim would feel on finishing a curry, to be told that it was pork. That's pretty much the feeling.

It's a feeling that the Righteous selectively ignore. If a Muslim were fed pork without knowing, the Righteous would be enraged. When non-Muslims are given Halal without knowing, the Righteous adopt their best sneering tone and call the non-Muslim 'Islamophobe'. And then wonder why so many vote BNP.

The superior attitude of the Righteous is now visible everywhere. Counting Cats finds them in a housing committee. They are everywhere in antismoking, and Dick Puddlecote points out their lack of interest in the people they damage.

If you are not behaving in the prescribed manner, if you dare to live your life outside the dictates of the Righteous, if you point out the ever-present fallacies in their arguments, then they simply discount you as a person. In their minds, you cease to exist. Object to Halal? Islamophobe. Dismissed. Smoke, drink or eat the wrong foods? Dismissed. Wrong waist size? Dismissed. Object to uncontrolled immigration and free handouts for those who can't be bothered working? Racist and elitist. Dismissed.

Glastonbury's curators did not dismiss the concerns of their core supporters. They apologised for their actions, to the people who they depend on. That allows the matter to be forgotten.

Counting Cats' mother did not get an apology from the Righteous who think they are in charge of her housing block. They were only concerned that they had been caught acting like spoilt infants. Those on whom they depend for their existence are mere cattle to them. A career in British government surely awaits them.

What the Righteous forget is that those they dismiss from their own reality do not cease to exist in real reality. They can still vote, and they are likely to vote for people who are similarly dismissed.

Sweden has just discovered this, as twenty seats in their Parliament are now occupied by their version of the BNP. Before this election they had none. Now they have twenty. That's quite a swing. Their principal aim is to control Sweden's immigration, yet their success is because...

The rise of the right, meanwhile, was put down to a significant increase in the unemployed, whose numbers have risen during the global economic crisis.

Ah, of course, it's all about the recession.

The Democrats have a strong base in the south of Sweden, where many residents feel overrun.

Overrun by unemployment, or by...

Umea University expert Svante Ersson said Sweden Democrat voters were often young men who felt ignored by society.
'They don't necessarily have to be xenophobic - it could be a way to make a statement against the establishment,' said Ersson.

Yes, it's just a 'statement against the establishment'. Nothing to do with any grievances those voters might have, merely a 'statement'. A statement that put twenty members of a previously MP-less party on the seats of Parliament. Well, the rest of those MPs will just have to get used to it.

Despite denials they are racist, both main blocs have ruled out working with them.

Sweden's Parliament intends to ignore twenty of its people's elected representatives. The people voted for the wrong ones, it was just a 'statement', they didn't mean it. I wouldn't be surprised to find they have to have another election, before which they are told to get it right this time. It's the new democracy. EU-style. Yes, you have a vote, and you'll continue to have a vote over and over again until you get it right.

The concerns that led to twenty anti-immigration MPs? Dismissed. The wishes of those people who elected those twenty MPs? Dismissed. Brushed aside as 'protest voting'. What are they protesting about? Nobody in power cares. The cattle voted the wrong passengers onto the gravy train, that's all they are concerned about.

In Righteous eyes, democracy only works if we vote for the right candidates. If we vote in one they don't like, well the error is ours, not theirs. They are always right.

The cracks in Righteous reality are widening. In America, for the Tea Party, a Mad Hatter who believes science has cross-bred mice and humans has won one of their pre-election elections. That's going to worry the dormouse. In Sweden, the ex-skinheads are winning seats. Everywhere, all those people denounced as 'far right' are voting for candidates denounced as 'far right'. Who'd have thought that would happen? Who would have thought that all those people dismissed as subhuman by the Righteous would go and vote for other people dismissed as subhuman by those same Righteous?

Oh, but it can't happen here.

Just as they said in Sweden, only last week.

16 comments:

Frank Davis said...

I've visited Glastonbury abbey many times, but I've never seen a single brick in it. Lots of stones. No bricks. None that I can remember leastways.

Same with most other abbeys and cathedrals and churches.

I'll have to check this out, but the idea I have is that up until about 1500, most buildings were either timber or stone. Then it becomes brick.

Of course, the Romans had brick, so it's not like it was a new discovery.

Not that it matters...

V4V said...

Out of interest halal meat has to have a prayer to Allah chanted during slaughter and for this service the local mosque gets a small payment, so therefore we pay a muslim tax.

The Sweden Democrats success is down to the failure of the main righteous political cartels and their lack of common sense ;AKA common Purpose. It will not happen here until the BNP's Gri££in & co go out of business or replaced.

Very good article and the Swedes make me proud the be one of the political elite's untermensch.

Vendetta

Anonymous said...

Maybe, just maybe the worm is turning.

Amusing Bunni said...

Great post Leg-Iron. I'm sick of the righteous state of facists that want to control everything. It is very sad C Cats Mom, and she's lucky to have him to fight for her.
They always pick on the ppl they think they can run over.

Good for Sweden, I hope we can do that here too, I think we will, after that who knows.

PS: Thanks for your comment on my latest post.
I saw it in the comment thingy notify, but it didn't post on the blog, just so you know. I'll insert it tomorrow, it's 1:30 am here, very late now.
Let me know if you posted it just to do so, and then you deleted it. I've been having that happen today. I've been getting new commentors, some very nice, that didn't post. and actually a few bonified trolls, I wonder why so many trolls lately? heee heee

email me if you want, and then I can communicate better w/ you. Just wanted to let you know I didn't delete you.

The trolls, I don't waste my time debating them. I know you guys love to filet them, and it's great fun reading that. I was almost tempted to leave it up for sport, but I don't want to give them the recognition.
The propaganda machine is in overdrive after today.
Have a great day and have a bacon roll for me!
Bacon, ummmmmmmm!

PT Barnum said...

O/T but could there be any relationship between the smoking ban and the current plague of bedbugs in New York which has closed cinemas and the Empire State Building, among other places? I do hope so....

Anonymous said...

@PTBarnum

Nicotine is insecticidal so quite possibly.

First class post as always, LI. Thanks.

Karen

Anonymous said...

PTBarnum

Use of tobacco smoke against parasitic mite syndrome
http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/info/info/disease/use-of-tobacco-smoke-agai.shtml

EPA Pesticide Chemical Code 056701
http://www.chemindustry.com/chemicals/485135.html

I hope so too.

Rose

B Manning said...

Where's dogoodybazthevegan when we need him?

English Pensioner said...

I believe that the right wing in politics will start to make substantial progress; for too long the left have been characterising anything to the right of their views as being "right wing", "far right" or "extreme right". Suddenly, ordinary middle of the road people, who have never considered themselves to be left or right, are saying "Hey, I agree with that, so I must be right wing". Once they realise this, being accused of being right wing is no longer a term of contempt, and they become proud of it.

Sok said...

O/T If you go to jail for non payment of tv licence do you get a tv in your cell?

Anonymous said...

'"My son," said the Norman Baron, "I am dying, and you will be heir
To all the broad acres in England that William gave me for my share..

'"The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite,
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow with his sullen eyes set on your own,
And grumbles, "This isn't fair dealing," my son, leave the Saxon alone.."' - Kipling

Steve

g1lgam3sh said...

Thought you might like this LI;-)


http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/news-headlines/scotland-to-ban-swearing-in-public-places-2007041432/

g1lgam3sh said...

Sublime post btw...as usual.

Anonymous said...

If your posts were not so righteous you might not hve to worry about the righteous.
As for halal - stunning the cattle first was introduced as a humane measure.
If you have ever had large blood loss you will know it is not pleasant Especially if someone lets it happen while reciting religion at you.

B Manning said...

Greetings to any Geordies out there

'Halal meat'

Leg-iron said...

Anon - Righteous? Me?

I'm not supporting Halal, I'm stating that it doesn't bother me. I would prefer to avoid it because I don't agree with not stunning an animal when that technology is available but I'm not going to get all worked up about it. If I visit a Muslim curry house, I would not be surprised to find it's all halal.

Stunned animals have their throats cut too. This has to be done while the heart is still beating in order to get the blood out.

Not so long ago, it was common in the UK to keep a pig in the back garden. While growing, it was a waste disposal unit. Once grown, the local slaughterman would come around and... cut its throat. No stunning.

I eat meat and that means things have to die. I accept that. others don;t and so they don't eat meat. I'm fine with that too. I don't care what anyone believes, what moral stance they take, as long as they don't try to force it one me. As I don't force my morals on others.

If you think that's being Righteous, you haven't been paying attention.

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