He is risen

 

Injustice

 One of the first things DZ did when he retired was to deregister from the general Medical Council, and relinquish his license to practice. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, having retired already on two previous occasions I knew how easy it was to succumb to the temptation of going back to work. I burned my boats. Secondly I was glad to escape the tyranny of the GMC once and for all.

This process was not as straightforward as I had anticipated. Applicants to deregister are sent a form to fill in, fourteen pages long. This form requires the applicant to list full details of all the places worked over the previous five years, so that they can then contact your previous employers to, essentially, solicit complaints. A last frantic attempt to try and get you for something before you slip through their fingers.

If you have spent the last five years working through agencies the number of previous employers can be quite substantial, and compiling this list becomes quite onerous. At least these days they don't charge a fee. In the past a fee was payable, meaning that someone with an unblemished record would have to pay to deregister, something he'd get for nothing if they were struck off for being a naughty boy.

I declined to play their games, and simply cancelled my direct debit, confident that, in due course, I would be erased from the register for non payment of fees. Frankly I don't give a shit how I escape their clutches. I fact they backed down and gave me voluntary erasure without their precious form.  Tyrants and bullies always back off when faced with even the slightest defiance.

So, having escaped, I have had no interest in the machinations of the GMC. 

Until today, when I read this article.

So they still have the ability to enrage me. Their conduct against Dr Abu-Sittah is nothing short of abominable, disgusting and reprehensible. It smacks to me of racism. What a bunch of pigs!

Conspiracy upon Conspiracy

Over the years that DZ has written this blog he's commented on a number of instances where various people and groups have loudly predicted the end of the world, the rapture, the second coming of Jesus. A number of occasions where the believers have traipsed up some hill to await the end, only to come back down the next morning dejected and disappointed that they have not been saved. Also the realisation that the rest of us have not been subjected to the dire fate predicted as punishment for our lack of faith seems to irritate them.

Well, there's another one. I wouldn't normally comment on this yet again, the scenario has been done to death, but this one differs from the others in two respects.

Firstly, this one is not religiously based. It's not being promulgated by those who delude themselves that they've figured out something hidden in the bible, or that god, or Jesus is talking to them, or leaving messages in random car number plates! (yes, really).

No this one claims that, for reasons not made clear, at 14:33h GMT, on 12 August 2026 the earth will lose gravity for seven seconds, causing everything not fixed to the ground to shoot upwards. And then drop back to Earth with catastrophic consequences.

The second difference is that there is a second conspiracy theory, claiming that the first is a fake conspiracy theory.

Let me explain. There are a number of people out there who believe that gravity is actually going to somehow switch off as described above. I will designate these people as Conspiracists Understanding Nasty Threat. Or Cons 1.

But there is a number of other people other people, who I will designate Anticonspiracists Ridiculing Solar Events or Cons 2. These people already include flat earthers, chemtrail believers and other practitioners of crank magnetism. These people claim that evidence for their various village idiot beliefs is widely present in the sky, but, are normally invisible in sunlight. And on August 12, there is going to be an eclipse. 

This, according to Cons 2, will allow the things that validate their beliefs to become visible in the sky to anyone.

They believe that those responsible for keeping all of us in the dark, the scientific establishment, particularly NASA, the media, governments etc have therefore come up with “Project Anchor.” This plan is to disseminate the gravity conspiracy theory to encourage people to stay indoors during the crucial seven seconds when the things will be visible in the sky, so they will not see the things, and ask awkward questions.

And we are supposed to be the most intelligent species on the planet.

Blind faith

One would think, wouldn't one, that those who purport to be deeply religious would at least know well, and understand, what is written in their own holy book. Historically there is good reason, in Christianity, why this would not be logical to believe. The bible was not even translated into English until 1382, but still not widely available in English until 1535 when it was first printed. Even then there were precious few people who could read it. Catholics could not even get their knowledge in church until the 1960s as until then mass was always given in latin.

So it's no surprise that actual religious knowledge among the deeply religious is poorer than you might expect, and studies have shown that atheists tend to know far more about what is actually written in the bible than their christian counterparts.

A good illustration of this has recently arisen in the USA. 

Unless you have been living in a cave, you will be aware that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the USA have been acting in a way than can be fairly compared to the Geheime Statspolizei of nazi Germany. There are numerous accounts of them behaving in a manner both unconstitutional and indiscriminate. Such as this case.

Unsurprisingly the conduct of ICE has resulted in numerous protests, such as this one, where protestors stormed a church where the pastor is himself an ICE thug.

This protest has attracted the attention of the US Attorney General who claims to be a christian. She has stated;

This ignorant bimbo seems to be unaware that Jesus is purported to have done exactly that, and the story is recounted no less than four times in her bible. 

Perhaps she should try reading it once in a while, instead of just using it as a prop.

Martin Luther King

 Today, Monday the nineteenth of January, is Martin Luther King day. Not a date that is observed much in the UK, but in the USA it's a national holiday. One wonders what he would think if he were alive today. The current situation in the USA give the appearance of regression, of having lost all the progress made over the years in the field of civil rights. The closet racists, and mysogynists have been emboldened to emerge from under their rocks and logs to freely vent their hatreds, encouraged by the deranged demented lunatic who sits festering in the White House. His vile infection even seems to have reached us in the UK, where our own nazis fantasise about gaining office.

But in despair there is always hope. Hope that the current chaos prevailing will turn to order if we work and even fight hard enough to that end. King himself had a message for those who despair.

"Only in the darkest night can we see the stars"

Martin Luther King 1929 - 1968

Final word?

OK, can we finally draw a line under the article of fantastic imagination called "The rapture"?

 I wouldn't count on it.

Internal Monologue

     Well, here we are on 6th October, the revised date of the rapture. Nothing has happened so far, but the faithful have specified a window of 2 days, 6/7, and, with the impact of time zones it will be another 48 hours before the realisation will hit that it's not going to happen.

So why exactly do people believe so intensely that they are somehow going to float up to heaven, where they anticipate smugly and gleefully watching those of us left behind all suffer and die?

     Could it all be that they're fucking arseholes who revel in the misfortune of others and are desperately hoping that it does happen?

     A common theme is that they believe it because they have been told, directly or indirectly, by god himself. People like Joshua Mhlakela, or Mike Johnson, who sincerely convey that god speaks to them. Wow! Why do they believe this?

     DZ has a theory. 

     Like the majority of people, DZ experiences an internal monologue. In his every waking minute his mind is constantly engaged in thought. About anything and everything, from the sublime to the ridiculous, the banal to the profound. Questions, answers, reasoning, conclusions. It never stops. From the moment as a young child he was able to think. If he tries to blank out his mind, he finds himself thinking about not thinking.

     He had always assumed that everyone had this. But it also has never occurred to him that this experience was anything other than the workings of his own mind. Like having a dialogue with yourself inside your own head. Sometimes he would drift into articulating his thoughts. Yes. DZ occasionally finds himself talking to himself. No-one takes any notice these days. They all assume you're talking on the phone. 

     But he has never entertained the idea that these thoughts come from anywhere other than his own mind.

     But then he read that some people do not have this internal monologue. He was astounded. Do some people really walk around all day with nothing going on inside their head except their immediate experience. Is there really no little voice inside their head exploring the abstract, the potential, the theoretical, the fantastic, like a constant friend. 

     Apparently true.

     But once in a while, DZ postulates, a little voice does pop up in the empty mind of one of these people. This must come as a huge surprise. If your mind never normally talks to you it must be disconcerting when, rarely, it does. And it seems to DZ that it would be logical to assume that the voice has come from outside. Add in religious fervour and it's obvious what has happened. You've just had a message from god! This might account for the fact that, when god talks to these people, he invariably says what the empty head wants to hear. He lacks the experience and the insight to understand that it's just his own mind finally breaking through.

     I suppose I could have it the wrong way round. Perhaps god has always been trying to talk to me.