The terror in Western history is associated with the time in the French Revolution when the guillotine was used to murder around a thousand people. But terror has a far longer and more unsavoury history in human society. It has been a determinate for change and one of the factors behind our need for Community….
Month: September 2010
Just Take The Pill
Our entire history has been one where we attempt to find answers for problems. It is our ability to answer problems that unifies all cultures and civilizations, though admittedly sometimes we can see the problems were not really problems as such in the first place (all those non-existent gods that needed appeasing). In answering problems…
The View
You know it well of course, you look over a house and one of the first things you look at is the view from the windows. It is deeply within us to look out, like our ancestors crossing vast stretches of tundra, we look not only to see what is around us but also simply…
Newspapers
When I was at school we used to get all the daily and Sunday newspapers delivered. There was a large room (very warm in winter time) with three huge tables in it and boys would casually go in during the day and read. This continued when I was at University where all the papers (expect…
Dr Doolittle
I was a reader, and still am a fan, of Hugh Lofting’s Dr Doolittle books. Apart from the sheer fun of using giant moths to fly to the moon and huge snails to cross the seabed, I just liked the idea of being able to talk to animals. It’s an idea that has followed me…
It Is Not Always In Our Hands
Positive thinking, which has been a buzz phrase for generations, isn’t just about being an optimist. Nor is it having a selection of random apothegms to quote to oneself and others when life begins to get you down. I just read a note from someone I know who’s wife has left him, children rarely talk…
The Long Train Ride
I used to love trains. When I was nine and coming home from my school for the holidays I was put into a carriage (the old carriages in the UK had six seats in them with doilies for head rests and sliding doors to the rest of the train) and I felt very grown up….
The Storm Will Pass
I am told over in the USA some States are into their season of storms and with the usual trained expectations of the populace people are preparing. Although most people will just put up the shutters and tidy the garden afterwards, around the world and through history people have faced storm, flood, eruption and plague…
Let’s All Work For The CIA
The history of spies is older than the Bible though there are a few recorded in there, because curiosity about what is going on ‘over there’ is part and parcel of being human. Of course with the development of States and countries and the natural antagonisms which exist between people, knowing what is going on…
All The Differences
I spent a happy few minutes watching Kenneth Williams interviewed by Parkinson (probably in the seventies) talking about doing a job of work because you want to do it well and not doing it just for the money involved. Parkinson argued with him that not all jobs are creative (Kenneth Williams was a famous raconteur…