Dear Mr Blair

Dear Mr Blair,

 So there are many things I admire in Mr Blair and there are many things I detest. History, unless it is truly distorted, will be the judge. My assessment will always be shaped by his personal ego, which is huge, the way he has courted the rich and famous and financial success. Perhaps he has viewed personal financial success as a means to further his worthwhile causes, but I don’t think so.

 As the Middle East continues to burn in an inferno of uncertainty and unhappiness. We debate the options. Mr Blair cannot leave the subject alone. Should I admire him for his research and obsession with the area? Should I tell him that it is time to stay away.

There are two very important phrases that contradict each other:

 - Practise makes perfect

 - Definition of insanity: Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. 

Which is he doing?

 Tony Blair will always be the brightest student in the class who lacks wisdom, understanding and humanity. He can analyse a problem repeatedly but because of his ego, personality limitations will continually come to the wrong conclusions. If he controlled himself he would be a genius; he doesn’t and therefore an abject intellectual failure. His analysis of the problem misses key details. You begin as Braudel did by looking at the Geography, then the religious makeup of an area; the population and then finally the culture, economics and political system. His analysis lacks this depth.

What must we do? First we must look into ourselves and our countries and what they can sustain and what the people’s priorities are. If we do not have the appetite for a fight, then even if is it the wrong decision you must simply prepare for the coming battle but not fight it before the people are ready. You must simply prepare.

There are three intervention options.

 - Rapid quick and effective intervention: If we trust the alternatives or feel the horrors of leaving the status quo out weigh the potential uncertainty, which will follow, then this is the path.

 - We are capable of being involved for the long-term perhaps a period of 20 years. I am not sure any democracy can make this commitment.

 - If we work with a wide portfolio of the international community, the objective is straight forward and there is a willingness to proceed. This could be democratic or military. Perhaps Economic sanctions.

 Crucially though if the people are not ready, then we have to prepare. Sometimes there is no choice but to prepare for the future battle. The future is uncertain, the battle may not come but you cannot fight battles before their time. Blair in his arrogance assumes, because of his analysis, he can stop future battles and he understands what the key issues will be. Unfortunately Mr Blair you are not special, you are not a genius accept it and start using your great brain to make the right decisions instead of trying to beat life. That is his mistake and he never seems to learn. You are not smarter than everyone; you are simply human, sometimes right and sometimes wrong. After all Mr Blair you were just a Lawyer; an effectively, highly skilled articulate actor. If you could accept your limitations then perhaps you might realise your potential.

 So what do we do about the Middle East.We assess the situation our options, work out what the people are prepared for and then act. It might not be what we want, might not be what we believe in but sometimes you have to accept the reality of life It is not a Holloywood movie Mr Blair accept it. 

To a certain extent unless the birth rate in the middle east begins to drop then it will continue to burn, to his credit Mr Blair is funding education, however, with high birth rates, instability will continue to flourish. There is no long term solution, there are only activities we can undertake to minimise its impact. We can encourage education, birth control, fair governance, legitimacy, economic development, limit arms proliferation but unless a clear thinking individual who inspires the youth arrives then instability will continue.

 They have to make their mistakes we can only try and limit the suffering by simple, sensible and pragmatic policies. We may stumble across the solution but there is no silver bullet and we don’t really know the solutions, therefore limited intervention and simple clear policies is the only path. Mr Blair doesn’t understand this as we always rate ourselves and our own intelligence too highly. 

Kind regards,

 Ordinary.

Another unthinker

It hurts sometimes, really hurts when I pick up an article from someone who has missed the point....... We should have an award for those who miss the point. It would perhaps teach us humility, self-doubt and greater understanding. So my award for missing the point of the day is Adrian Wooldridge - now as I age, writing for Mr. Google's robot who scours the internet reading all the pages that nobody else does kind of gets a little dull, however, Adrian Wooldridge just missed the point in today's article on The Viking rise again. What we can learn from them. Yes my friend let's blindly copy them, but missing the point of the day award --- aaahhh !!! You missed one crucial detail in your analysis. How they differ from the UK. Any discussion of the Scandinavian model should include one crucial piece of analysis. Their geography. Norway is like no other country in Europe if you turned it on its head, I was told, it would stretch to Italy. Scandinavia and Finland have a similar very unpopulated environment. This delivers several things to a people: - Property should be more available -lowering average property prices -- - Natural resources of one kind or another will also be available This critical difference, with at least three of the Nordic countries, should always be noted. We can learn much from their model, but we should not forget the differences. Economics has a tendency to do that; it makes us forget geographic, educational and historical differences. Sometimes they do not have an impact, but they should never be ignored. Anyone that does is sadly lacking in decent analysis and his view point should be seriously challenged. He could still be right, it is not always the individual with the most facts who is right, but this kind of laziness leads to more incorrect results. Our educated elite should not be so lazy to ignore this crucial detail after all Google, Wikipedia could point it out........ Poor analysis of the day goes to Adrian Wooldridge.

Open Letter Stewart Brand

Hello Mr Brand, So I can from my home sit and listen to some of the greatest minds and thinkers of our time, their thoughts and ideas. Steward brand has inspired a generation so they say, but in all honesty he doesn’t impress me too much…… nobody does, I annoy my partner incessantly with we are all overrated, or 99.99% of us are, I don’t even impress myself very much. There is an exception and that exception is James Lovelock, thinker, scientist and writer. Well I open a letter with, that doesn’t impress me much. It is unlikely to garner his attention but he has the ear of important individuals so I should try. We should in fact all not be very impressed with ourselves, all our heroes were flawed, or most of them, we all have done things we should not be proud of and fundamentally in the modern world the majority of us are committing a sin against our planet. So our heroes, Mr Brand, Mr Jobs, they in all likelihood have lived very polluting lives, well they are in America aren’t they? 99.99% of all Americans over pollute the planet, even if they don’t we also turn a blind eye to much of the agony on our planet. In fact to have a happy life necessitates a certain amount of selfishness, as there is so much pain and suffering on this ball of life that if we don’t avert our eyes occasionally, any right feeling and thinking person would feel extreme depression, angst and guilt. So by the luck of nature they have lived relatively happy lives, but by the nature of where they were born a certain part of their lives does not impress me much. In fact I am the same, without the great ideas, the money and probably the charisma. So I think we need a new belief system and part of that belief system should begin with humility, we are all not very impressive, and that to change this world, perhaps to save this world we all need to make sacrifices. I don’t know if it is possible, the tribal creature, our inability to preserve the commons, the guilt I feel when I eat fish knowing how it is over exploited and polluted, damaging perhaps to myself and the planet. We need to also work together, the solutions to our planet's problems are quite basic, we need to eat more vegetarian food, we need to have fewer children, we need to deal with perhaps a stable or even moderately shrinking economy, we need to be happy with our lot in life, and the rich need to devote most of their savings and income to persevering humanity, the planet and others… yet… this all repeatedly falls apart as somebody, a tribe, an individual will not protect the commons… so there is another scenario we are all fuck*d so hitch up, to that 12 miles a gallon car, eat all the fish, pollute, pollute, consume away as we are all screwed and the largest, strongest tribe will survive when chaos hits…. Yet some part of me, the spiritual side, the hopeful side hopes that perhaps humanity can come together as a group and as a species and do the right thing, we make sacrifices, we must all sacrifice as the planet requires it, how do we teach that, how do we imbue it, how do we ensure nobody exploits excessively the sacrifices of others, that nobody freeloads. Communism was wrong it should not be equality of reward, it should be equality of sacrifice, we should all give for the greater good. Yours hopefully, Ordinary Joe Wish.

Steve Jobs Dead

So I read again my blog post about Schmidt and Jobs and have a feeling of guilt. I put both names in the heading something he would have hated, I know more about him now than I did previously, however, I still stand by my comment he was no genius in the Einstein sense of the world; an individual who discovered something radically new.

He should though be acknowledged for his bravery and perfectionism. There are few people who want to excel in the world who want to do their best, Apple succeeds more than anything because people are committed to producing the best quality products they can, not just delivering at the lowest cost. His adulation is also a sad reflection on our world where too many products are produced at the lowest possible cost, where perfectionism isn't aspired too.

In many ways I am sure he was not a particularly nice man, I would dare to say Bill Gates is probably a more decent human being, but Steve Jobs would always be more interesting. Bill wants to please you as does Microsoft, Apple want to show you and dazzle you. They reflect their owners and founders so clearly.

He resents Mr Gates not for his success but for leaving before he could beat him, for not allowing him to have that feeling of success and fulfilment.

Great men such as Steve are different to the rest of us, it is that capacity to succeed massively or fail, that ability to take risks that most of us would not dare to, that ability to gamble their lives, their careers on a belief, they maybe wrong or right but they will do it. When they win we adore them, when they fail we ignore them. On my way to work I walked past the apple store on the first day and there sitting at the side of the road was a tramp drinking the last dregs of his beer. There are many men who gambled like Steve and will have a very different ending to their lives.

So he was no genius not in the sense of the word I understand: an individual who discovered something radically new. He was though a great man, a great builder of companies, a great developer and recruiter of talent and he was a perfectionist. The world needs more perfectionist and thanks for giving us the great perfectionist of the iage.

I salute you Steve even though you perhaps would not like my blog posts.

Mr Schmidt/ Steve Jobs

So Mr Schmidt decides to give the UK the benefit of his knowledge and experience and lecture us. In many ways he was completely right but in other ways he was 100% wrong. America doesn't produce originality, America doesn't produce the great thinkers it should, America is a country of implementors and spenders. It is not a nation of inventors. Now a country of implementors in the manner of China and the USA is what ultimately deliver wealth but truly America needs quirky countries like the UK.

Countries that produce outrageous genius, that experiment with idiotic ideas such as our 30 year experiment with the comprehensive system. These countries produce people that think a different way, that come up with the idea of the internet. The UK is a loser as it doesn't do as Mr Schmidt says, but the world is a winner. The more we all become American the more creativity dies in the world. Creativity requires variety and experimentation. The truisms he spoke do lead to great break throughs they deliver implementors.

Mr Jobs was the ultimate implementor, the ultimate business man. He took great ideas from others, the mouse, the mp3 player and simply did them better than anyone else. He was not a genius in the true sense of the word, someone who radically changes the world with fundamentally new ideas no one has thought of, he is the implementor who takes the ideas of others and shows the world the true potential of them. Perhaps that is genius i am just showing my prejeudice.

The world is a poorer place with out its ultimate implementor, who changes the world the implementor or the ideas man? The chicken or the egg. I don't know, but i know who i worship it is the ideas man/woman. They are the insane crowd, the people on the edge, the people going against society, those that risk scorn in their own time, those that push their brains to the limit.

America produces too few true ideas men, and the UK produces far to few implementors, but in the unequal exchange there is only one winner and that is the US.

Our future and our solution

The most striking thing about the News International, News of the world scandal was not the disgust I felt at the journalists and their contempt for humanity and the rule of law, but how poorly educated and completely dull the elite that mix with each other are.

News International was run by a lady with minimal education and quite simply an intellectual embarrassment. An elite must exist but that which dominates our society now is intellectually humiliating, and they were courted by politicians of all parties. She doesn't surround herself with intellectuals, David Cameron doesn't meet the great thinkers of our day, he meets a fairly poorly educated, but by some accounts nice lady. I would much prefer a man or woman who met with scoundrels, thinkers, whores and anarchists than someone who meets with nice, dull and intellectually vacant individuals. We continually moan about broadening access to elite institutions, I worry more about how embarrassingly stupid our elite seem.

So what are the solutions to our malaise?

1 Intellectual thought
We need a way of ensuring scientific studies and analysis are open to all. That people are taught to think generally and in a detailed manner, that the acquisition of knowledge is our duty. A human must play, but also study. Too many humans are kept in a child like state like puppies only ever playing. They have children and view this as their only commitment to serious thought. They frequently like Jeremy Clarkson espouse his worries about the decline of British industry yet who does he surround himself with, the Chipping Norton set, nice people he says, but intellectually dull individuals who do very little. They talk about sausage rolls for Christ sake, no wonder our country is in a mess. Our elite need to challenge themselves, work harder, stop just playing but play harder, work harder and look for intellectually stimulating individuals who push them. Not like minded individuals who do nothing, yet make a living from their personalities and networking.

2 Mechanics of our system
We need to be honest about the mechanics of our system. We have a capitalist society with varying degrees of democracy. Some countries such as Italy, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia have chosen a different path away from the liberal norms of north America and north Europe. Capitalism is a great wealth generator but decision making is increasingly flawed due to the short term nature of stock markets and the increasing juvenile nature of adults. We are also reaching the stage where long term decisions are increasingly important and democracy seems incapable of making them. We need to be more honest about our failures and those countries such as Italy which are not really Democratic and parts of Italy are similar to those failed or struggling states in South America. The Asian dictator is fast rising and in some cases solves international problems better than the West, as much as I hate to say it.

Democracy is flawed due to its short term decision making, its naive lack of realism often based around Hollywood movies. In life what is good and decent is not always right, and its voracious consumption of resources threatens the globe.

3 our animal heritage

Prejudice
Our animal heritage means we think about ourselves and our immediate group first, this was fine when did not have the potential to impact the biosphere and the planet. Our thoughts are chained in an ape man past but our power exceeds almost all elements of the universe excepting the power of the stars in it's different forms. We must accept this and define a way of combating it.
Sex
We are a strange discontented animal partly due to our unnatural life style and also our confused heritage, a creature who pair bonds but who is driven to infidelity. A highly sexed creature. We must gain a sense of our sexuality not suppress it, but work out the best way of harnessing it to maintain the stability of families.



4 need for belief
We have Need for belief but our belief systems are ancient and outside of simple child like truths offer modern man little in practical tools, but many ways to help us bond and find solace. We need a new more global inclusive belief system adopting the simple truths of the older ones but with practical direction to enable us to work together and think about the whole

5 managing complexity
People are pitiful in their ability to move from the small picture to the large picture. Most people are big picture or small picture idiots, whatever university or education they had. We must revolutionise our education system and analyze how to combat overcome this problem.

6 Eduction

99 percent of educated individuals are intellectually embarrassing, we have few broadly educated people on the planet. Few people read across our society and many understand small elements of our literary and scientific culture. The obtaining of degrees has blinded people to the fact that most are intellectually flawed and badly educated.

7 short term v long term how to persuade the mob

The story of history is of rulers persuading the mob to accept short term sacrifice and the mob fighting the ruler to stop over exploitation

Daily we need to eat and drink, satisfy our family demands yet the planet and societies have longer term needs.

In summary we have become complacent, arrogant and objectionable blinded by our democratic values to the wrongs we commit, blinded by our degrees and scientific achievements to our general stupidity, blinded by our governments to the decision making failures and selfishness that afflicts us all
We must first accept our flaws like an alcoholic, curtail the influence of our ancient belief systems and act more in a more modern, global way. We must realise our our own selfish aims and desires are inflicting damage on the planet, we must have fewer children, consume less, read more and devote ourselves to our planet and our global society not ourselves. We must once again realise what is good is not always right. We must learn to make hard choices.

Our elite must stop their lazy self serving ways which revolve around fun and acquiring greater wealth and space.

The poor work hard, starve or wonder how to exploit the system and produce too many children.

The middle classes treat life and the world as an entertainment park, earning enough for their families, but never really doing anything which stops their objective of having fun, some break into the rich echelons, they pay for most social works but run from personal commitments on their time and money. Their participation and commitment to society continues to drop. They must consume less and do more.

The rich separate themselves from society, they live in shuttered estates, take up ever more resources, and move to wherever taxes them less. They feel little commitment to society as they simply move. They avoid taxes and benefit the most but care little for anything but themselves. They do not support intellectuals, but puerile artists who offer little to our societies. They have become devotees of fun, and selfishness. An elite who care about more than just for themselves, who take on responsibility to society and a planet are critical. They are broadly though, shallow, poorly educated embarrassment to our civilisation. We do not produce John Ruskins anymore. There are exceptions, however, Bill Gates change the rich and you will change the world. Promote birth control and you will prevent a famine. Yet he shows his inability to move from the small to the big picture and misdirects his resources, operating as if life were a Hollywood movie.

I Ponder the the future

Ideas they flow around, my like a maddening rush of waves in the surf, relentless but seemingly pointless. The ideas i grasp them, hold them, realize things then they are gone. What is the point. My mind wants to explode, i want to run and hide. Yet, yet why i wonder why? What is the point of my brain it seems to serve no purpose yet it tortures me with so much yet delivers so little.

So i gaze upon the world, i watch the images on the TV the patterns are all so comprehensible. So America funds Pakistan, the Pakistanis are hooked on the finances so they don't advance, yet, yet its choices are simple. Encourage education and population restraint otherwise you will descend into choas. We always veer towards a balance, we follow underlying rules. The rules though are so painful to acknowlege and they relegate the human being. We so want to believe in magic, we watch Rock concerts, we salute our rock gods we want to be elevated above the normal, above the animal. There are great humans, those who are off the scale but we are an animal following fundamental rules written by our planet, by our genes, by our geography, by our technology. We must acknowledge them to progress and move forward we must accept the animal in us and the basic biological, geological and geographical framwork that forms part of us and our existence.

So as we heat our houses as we eat from cans as we ignore our heritage, our past we ignore our future. We must accept the animal in ourselves to move forward, we must accept he planet, we must accept risk, we must acknowledge who we are.