Wednesday’s UK budget

As expected this was a nothing budget with a sop to Old Labour in the form of a  new 50p top tax rate.

My take on the UK situation is.

The Recession is either over or we are past the worst. The government are succeeding in their goal of reducing the income of the bulk of the population to third world levels by promoting outsourcing and the  non existent IT skills shortage  in order to allow immigration from the Indian subcontinent. Presumably these 3-4 million immigrants will vote New Labour and save our  beloved leaders from  political extinction.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against immigration as such, but I am against  the selling of British jobs overseas.

When the next election arrives, assuming no state of emergency requiring its postponement is declared, the UK faces a choice of idiots in different colour rosettes,  the BNP – who I like even less than the other parties,   well meaning environmental fundamentalists with the brain and common sense of a moth in front of a candle frame,  someone  who thinks they can fly by sitting cross legged and the Raving Monster Loony Party. Whatever happens  various political jokes will be elected.

Voting SNP is tricky as it is not clear whether an Independent Scotland would automatically be in the EU, and I would want it to be, but given that England  appears to be dragging Scotland down with it, it is perhaps time to break loose.

On the whole however the most sensible and responsible party at the next election would seem to be the Raving Monster Loony Party.

Is it just me or does the current state of UK politics pose a threat to democracy in the UK?

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Implications of Chalmers’ hypothesis on consciousness.

Chalmers’ hypothesis that consciousness is a fundamental attribute of the universe  suggests, in line with mystical experience, that the universe is conscious and since self awareness implies awareness of otherness, the universe must be conscious of something else. Since there is good evidence at least one other world, the spirit world exists the universe must be conscious of other universes and if these  universes hold conscious being they will be conscious too. Chalmers has given good arguments that  consciousness cannot arise  from unconsciousness  which implies that  consciouness is a fundamental attribute of the multiverse. At this point I will draw back for the sake of my sanity.

If  consciousness is fundamental,  and cannot arise from the  mechanical functions of life it may well  have been injected from outside. And it may be that the universe was designed to hold consciousness.

I can hear thousands of Christian  and Muslim fundamentalists  reatdy to claim this PROVES their religion is  the one true path.

Sorry, it makes it less unlikely but  that is all.

The possibility the universe was designed, or perhaps simulated leaves open questions.

Who designed the designer?
How many designers were there? The  universe looks to me like it was designed by a warring committee  whose members  were deficient in basic competencies. Or perhaps it is  as in Heinlein’s “The  unpleasant profession of Jonothan Hoag” a work of art  by a beginnner with flaw needing correction.

Even if there were only one designer,  it is still a leap of faith to say they are the Christian god or any other god.

And the  big question  would be

WHY DID THEY DO IT

Perhaps the aim was to see how  the  way consciousness grows and evolves changes in universes with different rules,.  Perhaps  consciousness  is curious about every new universe.  Perhaps consciousness as it expands creates new universes, or has to populate consciousness free universes

I normally like to end with a conclusion. Now I end with something better. Questions

Spirits and the problem of consciousness

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Individuality and Unity

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On not being an automaton

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Jung, Alchemy and Magick

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A few speculations on Carnival, Magick and Trickster

As I believe I have established in earlier posts, Magick, the effecting of changes in accordance wit the will other than through mundane channels. seems to require, or at least be facilitated by an appropriate altered state of consciousness. (ASC) I have noted that the careful use of video games and virtual reality may bring about this state, possibly through induction of a light hypnotic trance putting the brain into a state where it predominantly produces alpha waves.

It could be argued that all rituals are intended to bring about the appropriate ASC, and examples include Christian and other acts of worship. Here I examine one possible way to design rituals that may make them more effective.

Magick implicitly involves breaking or rewriting the rules that govern the world. Trickster figures rewrite the rules of their world through a variety of devices. It seems logical therefore either to invite tricksters to assist in rituals or use some of their methods.

I suspect the two major barriers to effective magic are the practitioner’s unconscious and the rigidity the universe must have to allow sentient beings to communicate. I suggest an attitude to ritual that sidestep these at least to some extent.

In his magnificent essay “Trickster makes this world” Lewis Hyde denotes space to the notion of Carnival, which I understand as a region of space-time where normal (social) rules do not apply. Examples are the medieval feast of fools, Mardi Gras and the Rio De Janeiro Carnival. There are places that are permanent carnivals, or at least carnivals for long periods of time: many behavioural rules are suspended on the beach or in Ibiza. Elections and political rallies or demonstrations create an alternative reality in which behaviour that would not be tolerated elsewhere or elsewhen is not only acceptable but demanded.

What I am suggesting is that the ritual be a Carnival: A time and place in which normal social rules, other than those which protect us from each other, may be suspended and taboos may be broken. This allows the practitioners’ unconscious to ignore the rules about how the universe works.

There are examples of such rituals already: Zuni Dirt Rituals and to a lesser extent Voodoo rituals or a Loki Blot will include periods of breaking all the rules.

More straightforwardly a spiritualist séance or one of Bacheldor’s PK sessions includes the expectation that rules will be broken. Bacheldor even allows a trickster in his sessions: a participant who is allowed to cheat, to fake phenomena in order to relax the unconscious minds of other participants.

There is perhaps a more fundamental reason for designing a ritual as a carnival and using some of Trickster’s skills. The paranormal seems to be associated with Trickster and to exclude Trickster in anything associated with the paranormal ( assuming this is possible ) is perhaps to exclude the most effective component of the ritual.

But maybe the most important reason for making a ritual a carnival is

It is FUN

And when the participant are having fun they get out of the way and let the deep mind do the business.

Was the recession planned?

It appears obvious that the US, UK and world economy were steered toward recession. The question that remains is was this deliberate or the result of a mixture of greed and incompetence.

The effect of the recession has been to make a number of individual bankers very rich. On the political side the UK government has done what diehard old style labourites never dreamed of : They have started nationalising banks. The recession has also put all those pesky poor people who wanted to have the thing their political masters and betters take for granted back in their place at the bottom of the heap where they can be treated like dirt. And then there is Iraq: The credit bubble financed the war for the UK and America.

On the banks’ side those top bankers who did not bow their head to conceal a smile and retire with a mumbled apology to enjoy a multi-million pound pension can now feel their ego boosted by feeling they are part of the government. And top politicians can now argue that when they leave politics they can legitimately join the nationalised banks without having abused their position. And the banks look set to end with a property mountain they can sell at a vast profit, lending at exorbitant interest rates.

The motive is their, the mean were there and the opportunity was their.

Or did conversations like this take place

“I know how we can make a load of money”

“How?”

“Lend money to poor people to buy homes”

“And the risk?”

“Not our problem, we securitise the debt”

“Who’d buy that rubbish?”

“No problem, we wrap a few prime loans in with a load of garbage and get it rated AAA”

“The regulators won’t buy that”

“They will if we talk right to the politicians”

“Yes, and we don’t even need to try bribery, they will fall for anything”

“So if all goes well we get the money from these hopeful poor people, if not we get the homes and sell to the rich, and the investors who bought the securities carry the risk”

“And if they look like going under the politicians will have to bail them out”

“Yes, and you know the nicest bit?”

“No”

“If people think this was planned we blame Bin Laden”

“Fantastic, they’ll believe that”

“I can see it now: ‘Your bankruptcy is a victory in the war on terrorism’ ”

“Let’s not ask who won”

“Precisely. Pour me another bonus please”

Meanwhile in a room full of politicians somewhere

“OK we lift regulations protecting borrowers and when the bubble bursts we nationalise everything we can thereby making the people slaves of us not the banks”

“And if the voters think it was deliberate?”

“Blame it on terrorists”

Am I too cynical?

You decide

I had fun writing this. In my mind the twinr explanations for the observed steering of key economies to recession: deliberate malice versus a mixture of greed and stupidity have about equal weight. I tend to give greedy stupidity the edge as I have a distrust of “conspiracy” theories

Thoughts on cursing

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Websites for democracy

There are a two websites I would like to see for the UK which I think might do something to mend our broken politics.

The first I would like to see would be an equivalent of the American factcheck site, with professional journalists checking all statements made by politicians of all parties and checking official government statements. They would also monitor the media for uncritical recycling of corporate and government PR. This would have to be done in an impartial way with no political bias.

The second would be a site where people could pledge money to be paid to a named politician if that politician retired from politics before the end of the calendar year. Of course there would have to be safeguards, for example the money would be repaid if the person concerned re-entered politics later and the definition of re-entering politics would have to be clearly stated.

But together these would act as a check on the culture of spin and lying in politics and would let the public provide incentives for an unpopular politician to leave the game between elections. The amount of money pledged would give a direct indication of the unpopularity of the person and indirectly could show the unpopularity of each party

I don’t have the time or money to set up either.

Any volunteers