Innocent in the Darkness

In Arda, no god is omnipotent, no god is omniscient. All gods need followers, for it is the power of faith that make a god a god. In turn, gods use the power of their followers' faith to grant gifts and boons to their devoted servants to further their aims upon this plane.

A devoted servant is something special. They carry the message of their god to all corners of Arda. These servants' faith is not the blind belief of a fanatic, for they are expected to persuade others to join their cause. It may be far harder to find a learned individual with great faith, but they are far better at spreading the message of that faith.

No god is omniscient, but most events are overseen by at least one god. If a god wishes to protect their devoted servants, the easiest way is to warn other gods when their servants are in danger. This exchange of information, combined with the gifts the gods can grant, make devoted servants almost immortal. That is, until their faith lapses, or another proves themselves more devoted....

More of a public service announcement than anything else, this is an attempt to let those of you who don't read my various other commentaries know about the course of my life.

A while back, I took up with the incredibly gorgeous Abigail Bowhen. She's beautiful, intelligent, fun to be around and generally amazing. I feel like I finally understand what love is about and can't understand why someone as wonderful as her would want to spend time with me.

So, I'm now one half of a couple again. Strangely enough, for the first time I feel like there are no downsides to this.

Let me tell you of the world I see, within this country where we claim to champion the causes of freedom and humanity.

I see a mass of animals, with self-gratification elevated to an art form and only a thin veil of civilization remaining. I see the vast majority of people happy to tread others underfoot in an attempt to grasp one more handful of something they don’t deserve. I see a leadership in name only, where elected politicians spout meaningless propaganda to ensure re-election while forgetting the purpose they are meant to serve.

In this world, responsibility has been hijacked by lawyers and turned into a crime, while rights have become a cult with no thought for the duties of a citizen in a free world. These rights are used, abused and twisted to try and tear down society, all in the name of personal enrichment.

Charity is a means to put one over your fellow man, by giving more without thought to what your contributions provide. Food is given to the hungry, but that hungry population is allowed, or even encouraged, to grow to an extent where the native resources are unable to support it. The most important of causes, stopping the wars which damage or destroy the food production of these nations, is abandoned as too difficult even as notable figures decry their existence without ever acting against them.

Money is seen as the solution to all problems. No-one cares whether money solves the problem because throwing money at it shows you care and life is all about perception rather than reality. In the same vein, the government calls upon its departments to reduce their budgets to give the impression they’re saving money even where the savings realised will not match the expense of the reduction.

I could continue in this vein, but until I can see the way out of this triumphant march of the material over the corpses of honour and decency, I do not see the point

I've been thinking about the whole idea of Human Rights, and have to conclude that they are a fallacy. We have these wonders of civilisation - a list of things everybody has a right to. Then we qualify them. We say that your right of freedom only holds good so long as it is not in the better interest of society to incarcerate you, for example. It seems to me that, once you start qualifying such things, you're tacitly admitting that they weren't the perfect idea you would have people believe.

I think the idea of Human Rights arose due to the current culture of blaming others and dodging blame yourself. When you are trying to ensure you get your slice, even if it's at the expense of someone else, your idea of helping everyone reach a minimum standard of living revolves around stating what cannot be taken from you. In my opinion, the best way to resolve our rather selfish culture is to enact laws that lead people to modify behaviour, rather than seek to enshrine the flawed examples we already have.

If I was to seek to right the wrongs of this world, I would ignore the entire concept of Rights. As far as I'm concerned, Rights are earned, not given. A Right should have meaning and value, and it shouldn't be possible to acquire except by shouldering the responsibilities that go with it. We should instead adopt the idea of Human Responsibilities. It should not be your Right to live in freedom, it should be everyone's Responsibility to ensure that you do, including your own.

Perhaps if we embraced our responsibilities, rather than demanding our rights, we might actually be able to improve the world we live in.

drabbit has suggested they become Platinum Elves. Any further suggestions?

Posting this in a couple of places, apologies if you see it too often.

It's Greg's birthday tomorrow, but he's been hideously overworked for a while and hasn't got round to organising anything, so I'm seeing what I can do at short notice.

Currently, it's looking like meeting in the Hobgoblin from 6 for drinks, moving on to Las Iguanas at 8 for an 8:30 sitting for dinner. If you want including in the food plans, please let me know. Otherwise, feel free to turn up to the pub whenever.

I have just watched Jumper.

For those who missed all the adverts, it's about a guy who can teleport. The plot was, well, practically non-existent. The large amount of rum I consumed prior and during helped.

However, watch it purely for David's mother. It is a very good example of why religion ought to be banned.

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Making baby vodka is big and clever.

You get to eat the jelly babies you don't use, and drink the vodka to make room for the jelly babies you do use. A plan with no drawbacks....

( Roleplay )

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List 5 songs you like that start with that letter
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

I got given... D

Dead Martyrs - Manic Street Preachers
Die for Metal - Manowar
Distant Thunder - Thunder
Down to the Waterline - Dire Straits
Driftwood - Travis

Apparently Stephen Green, the man who took the BBC to court over Jerry Springer: the Opera, is facing bankruptcy over the costs awarded against him. His group, Christian Voice, has started an online petition to ask the BBC to pay the costs themselves:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bbc_springer/

On reading some of the comments, I found the following:

And lo, Almighty God, creator of the universe and all things bright and beautiful, the eternal in Heaven, the One, did see the affront to His name, and that of his only Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And God was a vengeful God and He did rise up against the blasphemers and MIGHTILY did he roar: Perhaps we could have like, some kind of online petition or something?

In the interests of fair reporting, there is also an anti-petition, campaigning for the BBC to ignore the first petition:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bbc_springer_green/?e

I find it all rather amusing...

For those of you who think you may have access to the Order archives in Treseryn, I have begun adding Miles' library of documents to milesdelacoeur.

If you think you ought to have access and don't, let me know.

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Why do people complain about the desensitisation of children by computer games and films? I can't help but think, after reading the latest newspaper article on the subject, that the newspapers themselves are far more of a threat.

After all, from what I can see the loss of faith in the government and public services is, to a large extent, down to the sensationalisation of mistakes and mishaps. Does anyone really believe that it is possible for humans to be infallible? Yet people's faith is slowly eroded by the torrent of stories in the papers, even though the statistical probabilities of serious errors are small.

Is this really the environment people want for their children? Do they believe that viewing everyone trying to help you is healthy? That the best approach is to expect the worst and then sure the hell out of anyone who makes the smallest of errors?

Personally, I view this breakdown in basic societal structure as far worse than a few spatters of blood or mindless violence. On the other hand, maybe I'm just desensitised...

Well, I haven't updated this thing in a while.....

I should have mentioned this earlier, but my mobile got lost a couple of months ago, and therefore I don't have numbers for a lot of people. Apologies if it seems I've been ignoring you, but lack of access to internet has made it rather difficult to find a way to let people know.

Hmm... New job. Been there for close on three months now. On the bright side, it's more interesting, and out of my thirty-seven hour week, seven and a half are my wweekly tutorial, I get ten hours of self-study which I can do at home, and the remainder is spent working on stuff which is actually challenging on occasion. On the downside, commuting an hour each way to Bristol and Back is never fun. I also seem to have far less time to do things as I end up far more tired in the evenings. Ah well, can't have everything. I am also being shipped up to Birmingham for a couple of days, both in January and February. Anyone know of anything to do up there?

Other than that:-

was rather surprised to discover I've now been with Charlotte nearly fourteen months. Seems much shorter.

I actually feel like I'm learning a bit about my faith. It's been a long while since I actively sought information, but I'm starting to look again. Seems I'm getting reminded in lots of little ways about what I ought to be doing. Still think it was amusing to find a handy Rune helpcard in an album sleeve though!

Here endeth my rather disjointed update. I shall try and do better when I'm more awake and am not attempting to touch type on an unfamiliar keyboard, but that seems less and less frequent these days...

Current Location: Charlotte's Room
Current Mood: tired

Last night I went to see the Tempest at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester. The building alone was worth the trip, the Exchange building has a very temple-style construction, with pillars and domes, while the theatre is a separate construction inside. It looks like it's attached to the main building by scaffolding, and the stage is in the centre of three tiers of seats, but there's only two rows of seats on the upper tiers so it's fairly easy to see what's going on. The stage itself is only about 30 feet in diameter, so the performance feels far more intimate.

The play itself was amazing. Pete Posthwaite was, as expected, the perfect actor to play Prospero. You could really believe he was a powerful man, used to authority, despite the simple clothes and the island setting. The other actors played their roles well, though Gonzalo was a bit quiet and I had trouble hearing his lines. Then again, I don't think you need to hear all the lines in Shakespeare to appreciate it.

Also managed to pick up a copy of Carcassonne, now I just need people to play it...

Back to Bath in half an hour. Not looking forward to another four weeks without Charlotte, but will hopefully find out what's going on with the new job so I can start planning ahead.

Current Location: Bramhall
Current Mood: content

Looks like I'm moving to Exeter in September. On the bright side, it's close enough to come back every weekend, and there's the possibility of home study which might leave me a day or two extra in Bath. On the downside, far less time to spend with Charlotte, and a probable loss of the games I play in during the week.

Of course, I might fail the background check. Would be typical.

In other news. Charlotte-less for most of the summer. Feels really wierd not having her here.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: lonely

As part of my Faith work in HMRC, I've just received an invitation to a Synagogue open day by Rabbi Warren Elf.

Current Mood: amused