A few thoughts

It is now nearly 2011 and we are coming to the end of an eventful year. For anyone who reads my postings, I hope you have a good Christmas and New year. It is very easy to focus on ourselves at this time of year, and I am not going to try and make anyone feel guilty for doing just that. But it is important to remember others who are less fortunate, so over the coming year if you have an opportunity to help someone, however little that is give it a go. It's interesting that it is sometimes the little things that can make a big difference. Sometimes just speaking to someone in the street or in a queue at the supermarket can make their day. Making a cake for someone or going and visiting that person you have been meaning to visit for ages can really bless them, and you.

Over the coming year I am going to continue to question the consensus, and I hope that you do as well. Over the weeks, months and years to come we will continue to be fed a lot of so called facts. Unfortunately these facts will be based upon subjective opinion and have no basis in fact. One of the things that has happened over recent years is that as we have gained more and more knowledge but we seem to have gained less and less objectivity.

I started to feel this more and more over the last 3 or 4 years, when I started to read more material which questioned the established view point. Whether that be; man-made global warming, ADHD, mass immigration being beneficial, the dangers of asbestos, etc. The more I read the more I realised that the majority of research into so many issues was based upon no more than subjective, unscientific opinion. And what I came to realise even more was that anyone who questioned the consensus was demonized and made to feel they were the lunatic, and even questioning some so called facts was actually wrong.

Reality seems to have changed and even truths that can be demonstrated by clear evidence is now dismissed as a matter of opinion. Anyone who complains and asks questions can be dismissed as a conspiracy theorist or 'right-wing' extremist. Anyone who questions the wrongs of the ideology of political correctness or so called equality legislation is made to feel guilty for even disagreeing. We now live in a world were everyone has the right to be offended and we now have 'victim groups'. Within the fire service we have a group for; women, ethnic minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (whatever that is) but of course none for white men; I wonder what would if I started up a group, maybe I should do it.

Anyway I didn't intend to write all that, but through everything just remember the truth is out there and don't always believe everything you hear on the news, even from reputable news agencies. Someone once said 'power has now hijacked truth and made it subservient to its own ends', I believe this to be true.

Let me finish with this. We now live in a society which is obsessed with celebrity, many non-entities have been accorded fame and fortune through no other reason than being famous. Many have done nothing except appeared on a TV show, even our politicians have become celebrities. What they look like and how they sound seems to be more important than what they say and what they stand for. I believe the person who has achieved the most through this obsession has been the US President Barack Obama who was accorded cult status through being the first black President. Barack Obama got carried away with his cult like status when he won the Democratic Party nomination, he declared that "this would be seen as the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal". Oprah Winfrey proclaimed Obama to be "the one. He is the one!" She was likened to John the Baptist leading the way for Obama to win. I think the peak of hysteria of Obamamania came when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009 for 'creating a new climate in international politics' even though he had achieved absolutely nothing. I cannot see this obsession with celebrity changing in the near future but you never know. Anyway, hopefully that will give you something to mull over the next few days.