All Along the Watchtower

My original title for this article was, What's in a Name? That was back several years ago when I jotted down a few words. Then I let the piece moulder, having lost interest in whatever furore triggered my furious need to respond.

You know, life's too short, whatever... Move along now, move along, nothing to see here... etc.

Then the latest wave of idiotic outrage hit social media. And this time is was centered on BattleTech. Not quite my first love of SF wargaming, but it might as well be. However, What's in a Name? struck me as a bit too passive for how I feel about the current furore.

With clowns to the left of me, and jokers to the right, All Along the Watchtower strikes the right tone.

Because, all this has happened before, and all this will happen again.

So say we all. Obligatory Battlestar Galactica shout out, because it was the 1980s, and we had Satanic Panic; when idiots believed that Dungeons and Dragons was turning kids to the worship of Satan (see the picture above: it's all true).

I still remember a conversation at a dinner party. My partner at the time worked at KPMG, an accountancy firm.

All of us sat at the table were adults, having a very civilized meal. We sat opposite a very nice young couple, and the conversation came around to hobbies and interests. As conversations tend to in such circumstances.

I mentioned that I was into role playing games, only to discover that they thought such games led people towards evil. They were convinced that playing D&D made one an agent of Satan.

My reply...

"Naked people prancing around fires worshiping Satan were harmless in comparison to the manipulation of the markets by stock brokers."

It made the senior KPMG partner chuckle, and the nice couple were lost for words. They left the dinner party shortly after finishing their meal.

I thought then that the outrage from Christian conservatives was pretty dumb. Now we have dumb outrage from the liberal left over Nazis promoting their ideology by having a tank named Rommel; a Nazi general.

Really, I couldn't make this shit up and pass it off as believable in a novel.

The outrage of such moral certainties not only cheapens the real horrors of what the Nazis did, but ignores the fact the real horrors are driven by those who control the world; the masters of commerce and politicians who are all in thrall of the financial markets.

I want people to understand that outrage over naming model tanks in games after Nazis is pointless. All it illustrates is the reality of the human condition and our tendency towards thought-action-fusion.

Thought-action-fusion is a term from psychology that describes the process of believing that bad thoughts lead to bad things; in short, magical thinking. My excuse for bringing this up, I'm a retired psychotherapist, so this is what I was taught.

Aldous Huxley had something to say about this too:

"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats."

From my perspective, this is what both the left and the right are engaged in.

From the left (my side if you like), we are destroying evil by being evil. From the right, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Both different, yet both the same.

The ends do not justify the means, the means justify the ends.

Yes, Nazis were/are evil, and we should not celebrate them. But, if in doing, in our race to be the most righteous, we reduce all that is good in the world to mush, then what will be left is a desolate cultural wasteland.

For the people complaining that complaining about change means the other person is a Nazi, I will point you back to the Satanic Panic led by Christians over D&D.

The people complaining about the decision by Catalyst Games over the name Rommel in BattleTech are most likely not Nazi sympathizers. What they are doing is upsetting themselves, complaining about something that they cannot control.

But, being upset by change or challenges is nothing new to the human condition.

It is likely these people fear that the righteous indignation of the left, seeking social justice, will lead to more changes. The renaming or erasing of the games historical call outs like:

Hetzer; Condor; Von Luckner; Sturmfeur; Jagermech; Stuka.

Then I predict their next fear will be, where does this stop?

The left are big into cancelling cultural appropriation, and BattleTech has a history of appropriating everything that makes it the rich setting that it is. For example:

Saladin, Assassin, Dervish, and Crusader (all historically horrible);

Corsair, Marauder and Enforcer (all murdering bastards);

Samurai and Hatamoto (Japanese culture taken out of context);

Chippewa (Native American, need I say more?). 

Oh, and then the conservative Christians could be dumb enough to complain about promoting pagan religions and empires:

Hermes, Vulcan and Centurion (and the list goes on).

Let's be honest, the BattleTech setting is not a nice universe.

Arguably it is pretty grimdark, not as bad as Warhammer 40K, but all there is hundreds of years of war that led to the Jihad (mic drop). At least they didn't call it the Crimson Jihad (that's a joke, or like a joke, it depends on your sense of humour).

But let's say I'm wrong.

Let's say that we are living in the worse case scenario. A world where Nazi sympathizers are promoting their ideology through wargames.

Then the evil that they can do by pushing miniature metal tanks over a cardboard playing mat is insignificant to the evil of the greed and corruption brought from power to control the markets.

I have strong opinions about the current morass that is social media.  So I'm sorry if I have upset people by calling them idiots or saying they're dumb (Not sorry, just British).

I will finish with another Aldous Huxley quote:

I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.

Normal service will resume in my next post.

Older, But No Wiser

We were recently at my friends Pum and Jay's wedding. Meeting up with the gang from back in the day, hence the picture of me and Glenn taken by Susan.

It was also my birthday recently.

Another year around the sun has passed by. I got some lovely presents from my beloved, including a new iPod. The downside to getting a new iPod was upgrading my operating system from Monterey to Catalina.

The first download left my computer only mostly working.

I couldn't access my system preferences, and while I could open other programs, I couldn't access my iPod. The whole raison d'être for upgrading my MacOS in the first place.

So I backed up files, as one does, and downloaded the new operating system again.

This time it took, as in I could access the system preferences and load files onto the iPod...

Mostly.

I say mostly because iTunes requires access to the Apple app store, which had been broken, and easily ignored because I'm not interested in apps for my iPod. I just want it to store my music for when we're driving, and keep pics of my stuff to show people my work.

All this took the better part of two days to sort out.

Upside, my new iPod has a camera, which is nice. So, if I remember to take it with me when I go out I now take snaps.

Pivoting to Face 2022

I'm not going to provide a list of predictions for this year as I think that my 2020 list for 2021 covers what I expect for 2022. In summary, the new year will have a lot of the same stuff happening as the last two years. The cartoon sums up the world.

Sorry, not sorry.

So here I am, nearly nine years after staring this blog charting my writing progress. To that effect I'm pivoting the blog to account for my failures. Time to stop reinforcing failure and get on with getting on.

Plans for this year: finish my next two novels, write a set of rules, and make and paint some more models. Simple goals that I can hope to achieve.

There will be fewer posts too.

Why? Because the purpose of the blog is to have a presence where people can find my work, and as such this seems to be failing. My need to write a diary of my writing progress is no longer an essential need at this point, as I think I've reflected enough on my writing process.

WIBBOW is my new watchword. Would I Be Better Off Writing.  The answer to that is most certainly yes. I need to get back in the saddle, and regular posts here are a distraction.

Post Annus Horribilis

Life would have more clarity if you could. Shit scary, but clarity.

I see everyone posting hopeful goodbye to 2020 and to a better 2012 (sic)... 2021 (doh!). Don't get me wrong, things will improve going forward, but a fixed date on the calendar isn't in and of itself a harbinger of change.

Last year I opined on how 2019 hadn't been a great year for me, but better than 2010. A year later I find myself again saying the obvious, 2020 wasn't great either. And funnily enough, still not worse for me than 2010, because no hospital admissions for emergency surgery for one.

This may sound callous, but in the bigger scheme of things I can only control those things I can control, and when it comes to my health, that isn't a certainty either.

We lost a lot of people to the global pandemic, but it could've been a whole lot worse, still shouldn't have been this bad (this isn't rocket science, just ask veterinarians on what to do).

My predictions for 2020 were pretty much spot on. 

If only I had thought to add something about a pandemic, people would've been amazed at my powers of prestidigitation. As it is, I can rest assured my lack in predicting the future will go unremarked. Which is a good thing. There's enough crazy in the world without me adding more.

My partner has been home for most of December, which has been lovely. It has helped me immensely too. The only intractable problem I appear to have at the moment is staying focused. I find myself distracted by things far too easily, and not in a good way.

You know? Oh look, something new and exciting... I must have the shiny thing kinda way.

Plans for this year: finish my next two novels, write a set of rules, and make and paint some more models. Simple goals that I can hope to achieve.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Twenty Predictions for 2020

 

Just for fun, no guarantees, my predictions for 2020:

1. Well intentioned people will remain ill informed.

2. We have not reached peak Donner-Kruger, the stupid will burn the world.

3. Ad hominem attacks will continue to push people into opposite camps.

4. Disagreeing with a person will be evidence of you being a racist, fascist, homophobe etc.

5. Social media continues to hack our behaviours.

6. Pedantic debates will rise over the correct use of language and pronouns etc.

7. People will be outraged at other people being outrageous.

8. The drive to increase diversity will lead to less diversity of opinions.

9. Speaking truth to power will continue creating an unlikely alliance of left wing feminists supporting Alt-right misogynists.

10. Freedom of speech has become a weapon used by both left and right to define the other side as evil.

11. Debates will center on feelings and the lack of good faith by both sides.

12. People will forget that other people's opinions are not their concern.

13. Civility in discourse is drowned out by cancel culture.

14.  Everybody on both sides of the political divide will be disappointed in:
     a. Any political outcomes.
     b. Efforts to address climate change.
     c. Arguing over capitalism versus Marxism.

15. People still don’t understand the scientific method.

16. People still want simple solutions to complex problems.

17. The A.I apocalypse will not happen.

18. We will not meet aliens, but that isn’t proof of the Fermi paradox either.

19. World War 3 won’t start (edgy prediction).

20. Comedians will be more politically astute than the mainstream media.

Have at it. Catch you on the bounce.

The Divisiveness Around Transgendered People

Disclaimer

This is a long response, to a furore on another blog. A fellow writer, who is a good man with a lovely wife. I posted a version of this on his blog, but I have no wish to troll him with continued comments there.

Hence this post where people can kick the ball in my playpen.

For my British readers, I'm being aware of different sensibilities between myself and Americans.

Conditional Assumptions

I look up to the American Constitution in amazement.

I wish I were an American, but life events have left me unable to realize my dream of being a citizen of the greatest force for good in the world. Without you guys we'd all be speaking German or Russian, and with all due to respect any German or Russian readers, no thank you.

The preamble to the Constitution begins:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

These assumptions get us/me to...

The affirmation that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens, and safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights of liberty and equality, and of the federal and state governments.

I disavow communism, because it's a utopian ideology. Homo sapiens didn't evolve to live in utopias. For communism to work, humanity would have to stop being human beings.

For the record, I regard myself as a pragmatic humanist. A flawed human being like everyone else.

Issues Arising

There are a number of issues, but this should not be thought of as a complete list of all the issues.

1. The refusal to use he for she and vice versa, because it's a lie, and therefore an ethical problem.

People who believe this must be an absolute blast to live with. Imagine when their wife/girlfriend asks, "Does my bum look big in this dress?"

Parties must be a total hoot too, when you truthfully tell friends and family what you really think.

2. The refusal to be forced to use a gender pronoun, restricts the freedom of speech.

I agree with the right for people to have of freedom of speech. But right to say what you want comes with the responsibility for any offense you cause. In my experience, a lack of politeness often leads to a smack in the mouth.

Even Jordan Peterson calls transgendered women she. I've seen him do it.

3. Tired of facts being twisted for political correctness. There are two genders, not 54. Your sex comes from the chromosomes that cannot be changed. Getting a boob job and a choppadickoffame surgery is simply cosmetic surgery.

I agree that gender reassignment surgery doesn't change a persons sex.

I agree that gender reassignment surgery is cosmetic.

If by genders you mean what is observable, measurable, and can be replicated, then the science establishes that sex isn’t so much binary, but a bimodal distribution that appears to be binary at coarse scales.

Therefore science or facts are irrelevant when you say you are presenting yourself as a member of the opposite sex.

So, I support trans rights, but it’s fundamentally not a fact based scientific issue.

4. Wanting to change your gender is a mental illness

Vague, unscientific, wishy-washy and meaningless dog whistling.

5. You can call yourself (insert choice of: gorilla, attack helicopter, etc.)

Gorillas in the room often go unseen. But the argument is fallacious, because they're aimed at straw gorillas that don't exist.

6. They're Trannies.

This is a slur against cross-dressers. Feel free to use slurs, but again you must take responsibility for what you said, and not be surprised when someone smacks you in the mouth.

7. It's insanity, this means War!

Over the top hyperbole, because it isn't a war, yet. And let's hope the current madness in American politics doesn't degenerate into war. The last time you guys had at it, more American died than had been killed in all the wars up until the recent one in Afghanistan.

8. It's a perversion that can't be excused.

The agenda that drives this argument goes against everything that makes America and Americans great.

9. Luring men into sex with men who look like women or vice versa.

Here's a link to an openly transgendered woman

So I can see that being tricked might make you feel ashamed, or disgusted. These are powerful emotions. But feelings are not facts, as I've discussed above, so just mind your own business.

Besides, I seriously doubt that the first thing on any man's mind when he looks at her is whether she has XX chromosomes.

I think she looks like a woman. Pretty too. I wouldn't kick her out of bed. I'm a lesbian, go figure.

Conclusion

If you've got this far, and you agree with me, excellent. If I've triggered an emotional response sorry, but it's not my problem. If you use any of the arguments above to justify your opinions about transgender issues, I'm afraid to tell you this, but you are ill informed.

However, all is not lost, if you go away and challenge your beliefs

Start with this question: How do you know?

Fickle Fame

 

I caught this from David Langford of Ansible fame.

Paul Cornell, whose connections with Doctor Who include many tie-in novels since 1991 and scripts for three broadcast episodes, dared to tweet that Jodie Whittaker was "A great new Doctor'." He was swiftly put in his place by Twitter twit Jr Hunter with 'Yea... I could tell you never seen previous doctor who's'. (7 October) Another such pundit dealt with Neil Gaiman, also a long-time Who enthusiast and scriptwriter: "ahh so your a new fan because the doctor is a woman not a real fan of the show since the 60's then." Truly all knowledge is contained in Twitter.

Which I think just about goes to show that no matter how famous you are, or well known in a particular area that someone will not have heard of you.

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If it Bleeds, it Leads

I was commuting to work yesterday when the driver announced that our train was delayed because someone dropped their phone on the track at Earls Court station.

The London Underground runs pretty much like clockwork until something happens to cause a hiccup to the service.  So now all the trains were held up, and a backlog of passengers were waiting to get on at each station, which meant the tube became packed to bursting point.  This led to more delays, due to the bodies of people pressing against the doors, which stopped them from closing and further delayed my journey.

This of course doesn't make the news: thousands of people delayed getting to work because some numpty drops their phone.  Neither did the suicide/accident on another line, which my boss commuted in to see me on, told me about.  So some news is more newsworthy than other news.  I say this apropos of the recent events in Europe, which are quite frankly appalling.

However, this reminds me of when I did my first degree in Photography & Film Studies, a joint course run by Trent & Derby Polytechnics (now both universities, but this was a long time ago), we did a six-week media studies module to understand reportage.

At the time,  the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was facing down the National Union of Miners led by Arthur Scargill.  Everyday we would read all the newspaper reports of what was happening.  Our mission being to study the slant each paper took in presenting the news (newspapers being a major source of news then, unlike now where they are dying dinosaurs unable to make money).  This is where I learnt that news is coloured to suit the agenda of the paper's owner's (what can I say, I was young and naive and didn't understand this stuff, and this is what an education is for).

Bottom line, it's all about the money.  What sells, what doesn't.  And what sells is not reportage of events per se, but the emotional content of an event targeted at the reader.  Psychology in the service of capitalism, which is why reports of all the terrorist attacks in the Middle-East go largely unreported by mainstream Western news sources.

What has this to do with stories?

I would argue that human beings understand the world through the stories they tell each other, and I would further argue that of all the things that are different between us and the rest of the animal kingdom is our story telling.  Stories of heroes and villains, and my choice of the picture of Ozymandias from Alan Moore's Watchmen is down to the trope of a person so smart they can assimilate and process all of the world's news and come up with a plan to fix humanities problems.

This is escapism, but it can also inspire hope, because hope allows us to carry on and in time move on.  However, this is not a promise of a better tomorrow, only that tomorrow will be different.

Sadness & Distractions

There comes a time when the only way to deal with the horrible things that have happened in the world is to distract oneself with other stuff.  Britain may have voted for Brexit, but that doesn't mean we don't share in grief from acts of terror.  I wish all my French friends well.

As for distraction I have work: my NHS clinical practice; and there's my writing and doing article for the Galactic Journey blog too.  And then there's archery to fill in the spare time that's left.

Perfidious Albion

The majority of British subjects have just proved themselves to be economically ill informed.

I could be wrong, and I will wait with bated breath to be proven wrong.  If the politicians adroitly manage the changeover, by keeping London's position as an economic powerhouse in Europe, and the economy doesn't tank, then all will come out in the wash.

Meanwhile, all we can do is wait and see what happens.

Easter & Stuff

I missed posting last week because we were away in Cambridge with friends and partying, and I felt rather unwell all weekend and most of this last week.  Not quite coming down with something but fighting off whatever ailed me: coughing and stuff, including feeling really cold.  Today the sun is shining and I feel a lot better.

This week there was the horrible event in Belgium, a place that has wonderful people, nice restaurants and great museums.  I missed most of the reaction because I was at work and I don't have time during my clinics to be browsing the news.  All I can say I will not let this action make me fearful, because fear leads to hate and anger, and these are strong emotions that should not be unleashed otherwise one is pulled along rather than being in control of how you behave.

So another week has passed by in a flash, and I have writing to do, including an article for a new editor who asked me if I'd like to write a non-fiction article for him, which I will tell you about closer to the time.

In the evenings we've been chilling by re-watching Elementary, the American Sherlock Holmes series with Lucy Liu, which we've really enjoyed.  We've just received season three, hence the re-watch as it has been quite some time since we saw the series.  Paul Cornell talked about working for the show but his episode is in season four, so it's going to be a while before we get around to seeing his episode.

We've also re-watched some old movies.

Dante's Peak, a favourite of mine because it has James Bond and Sarah Conner in it; sorry I mean Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton but more importantly, as far as Hollywood films goes, the science behind the story is not the usual egregious nonsense one has come to expect.

We then watched The Omen, mostly because I had fond memories of David Warner using a Nikon F2 with a photonic head and Patrick Troughton, the second Dr. Who, and still one of my favourite actors who played the role over the history of the show.  The film has not aged well or perhaps I should say I've aged and my expectations of a movie are different now than when I first saw it back in the cinema circa 1976.

I also bought Contact, the Jodie Foster movie based on Carl Sagan's book as we both enjoyed it the last time we watched it.  It has aged remarkably well considering what they could do with CGI.

Finally, we watched a new movie, The Last Witch Hunter starring Riddick, Ygritte and Frodo with someone called Michael Caine who may or may not be Alfred the butler or whoever.  Vin Diesel played himself as did Michael Caine, so they were well matched.  Rose Leslie held her own, and Elijah Wood proved again he could really act by playing a part against type.  Though having seen him do that twice now in movies perhaps this is his new type?  I have to say that though the film was a confection of fantasy tropes, Vin Diesel with a beard, waving a flaming sword, and slaying witches worked for me.

This weekend is going to be chock-a-block with archery, eating chocolate, drinking wine, and rewriting the article I mentioned, just to reassure the editor who I knows reads this blog that I am working on his commission.  Have a good one whatever you choose to do.  Catch you all again next week.

Saturday

Today I was interrupted by my partner telling me about what happened in France.  I commented about it on my other blog.

This week I've been busy writing.  Its something I do when not reading or thinking.  Or eating and sleeping.

So this week I compiled Strike Dog and read through it after finding a typo on the first page.  An oops moment which resulted in a quick editing pass going through the whole novel and adding 40 words to the total.  Phew!  Next I finished polishing off Bad Dog, a slightly more strenuous edit which I started at the end of last week.  I ended up changing about 102 words and after compiling it found some formatting errors.  So a quick once over to correct that and I was done.

After that and going to Aldershot to retrieve my truck after its service and MoT.

Then it was back in the saddle and I made a start on Ghost Dog, the third book of an unintentional trilogy.  In the process of starting the re-write I found a scene to pull and put into a side novel that I've tentatively titled Two Moons.  I had already put about 7,500 words in a Scrivener document from scenes pulled out of Strike Dog.  So by the end of this week, after a serious revision of those words, I find myself having accidentally written 10,653 words of a new novel.

Any of my friends who are doing NaNoWriMo this month I do apologize if knocking up ten thousand words in a day a bit discouraging.  But what you have to remember is that for the last three years I write almost every day.  So don't be disheartened just keep typing and good luck.

A Minority Report

By the power of Castle Grey Skull, sorry I mean the European Union, I now find I belong to a minority.  I woke up thinking I'm British, only to find I'm Cornish. Oh how we laughed and cried at the news in our household after breakfast, what with my partner being born in Cornwall, and my mum being Cornish.  I wonder if I will have to wear the Cornish flag on my clothes to identify myself now? 

We are so grateful to be labelled as part of a new minority that we are thinking about going out later to celebrate the good news by buying a Cornish pasty to celebrate.

PS: I have a weird sense of humour and find this very funny.  YMMV.