Tag Archives: fear

Here comes the bus.

Posted by on January 7, 2009 2 comments

You know, you can wait ages for a bus and then they all come at once.

The British Humanist Association has got a donation funded ad campaign running that has put an Athiest message on the side of numerous buses in London and other UK cities.  The campaign has spread to other countries and has exceeed its original donation target by many many times over.

Speaking from my own perspective which is both Buddhist, Humanist and secular, I think the idea is a good one.  We regularly get religious messages rammed down our throats overtly or otherwise, so it’s good to see a counter point.

This challenges people’s beliefs, and as such, many believers won’t welcome this.  In fact many haven’t, but if you hold a belief then it’s important that you regularly challenge it and examine it.  If you hold a belief from a desire to socially conform, or out of fear, then can you really be said to believe?

This is a question I’ve asked myself before, if many “believers” hold their beliefs for a desire to conform, or out of fear, then are the worlds organised religions as stong as they seem?  Or does the house of cards have no bottom card?

Too much power, too many rules.

Posted by on November 7, 2007 1 comment

I was reading about the new legislation in the Queen’s speech today. It seems that we need to have a new law passed for everything, further invasions of our privacy and our rights eroded.

It’s amazing what they can push through, mention the word Terrorist since 9/11 and you can wave through almost any measure you want, consider the new National DNA database, there are people on there who haven’t been convicted of a crime!

It’s almost as if we’re considered suspect simply by default, though Lao Tzu does have advice for us on this one:

“The highest rulers, people do not know they have them
The next level, people love them and praise them
The next level, people fear them
The next level, people despise them
If the rulers’ trust is insufficient
Have no trust in them

Proceeding calmly, valuing their words
Task accomplished, matter settled
The people all say, “We did it naturally”“

This is illuminating as it suggests a position far removed from the one we currently see in public figures. Lao Tzu suggests a more humble approach, indeed I’ve recently read comments by people saying that our leaders need to take a moment and remember who they really work for. The lack of trust they have in us is unsettling, the need to remember that somewhere in all the rules and cameras and the surveillance the spirit of the society that they’re trying to protect will get lost.

They are so attached to the idea of defending Britain and it’s people from every imagined aggressor that the country will be stifled by the grip they’ll have on it; the people will eventually be injured both in spirit and prospects, maybe even physically by the very measures and officers supposed to protect them.

I personally think they’re taken the exact wrong approach, the threat of terror needs to be tackled on a community level, it’s not a matter of arresting people it’s preventing them becoming extremists in the first place. I remember a point made by Robert M. Pirsig that when someone is deemed insane they’ve possibly subscribed to a view of the world that has higher quality for them than everyone else’s. I think the best view to take with those who would destroy our society is to reach out to them and show them the higher quality in our society.

Imagine a way forward that doesn’t involve more expenditure for the military industrial complex and security services. I wish it would catch on, I can’t see much of a future in mistrust and fear.