Thoughts for: Thursday 18th May 2006
The land of the... hahahaahahaaaaaahahaaaaaaa :: [11:12:25]God it cracks me up. It really does make me laugh. Land of the free indeed. I can always trust America to make me laugh.
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:: [11:08:52]Perhaps old news now, but considering that it's old news there is of course the simple question of: why haven't we seen something done with this technology?
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:: [11:04:31]The link below takes you to the Daily Mail website and includes a news item about an 12 year old girl who is 8 months pregnant (Child concieved when she was 11) and will (if she gives birth on time) be Britains youngest mother. Now, how exactly can I put this? This is what is wrong with Britain. Well this and Tony Blair but you know, one rant at a time. The moment I saw this headline I stopped reading and for a few moments said exactly what it would contain. I said that the child who is with child would be what is commonly referred to as a townie. I knew the father would be older than the girl, I knew the girl would smoke, I knew that she will have being doing so from a young age, I knew that the child would have been conceived while the girl was drunk, I knew that that the child would have been drinking for some time actually, I knew that she would be what is politely termed an underachiever at school and I knew she would come from a large family and that her mother would support her. I was right (I usually am). How did I know all that from a mere headline? Well because it's the fucking norm' these days. There was a time when such headlines would have been shocking and sensationalist. Now, they are so old hat that they merely elicit a shrug from most people.
Read the article, I was right in every single detail. Here with a young girl who although she didn't want her baby, believes herself to be ready for motherhood because she sometimes looks after her younger brothers. Ok, so an 12 year old looks after her younger siblings (Apparently including babies). As if that wasn't bad enough, said 12 year old has been drinking since she was 10, smoking since she was 9 and was thrown out of school for fighting. Well with qualifications like that I'm amazed that she hasn't been offered a job as a nanny by the rich and famous elite. Quite frankly stories like this are ridiculous and I am sick of hearing about them. Sick of hearing about them because it just shouldn't happen. This sequence of events shows an ineptitude of parenting on the part of this girls mother which is beyond the comprehension of any being with an ounce of common sense. What kind of parent allows these situations to develop? You know, I could have that as a rhetorical question but fuck it, I'm going to answer it. The type of parent which allows that to happen is a parent of low intelligence, with no aspirations, no money, probably supported by the council in everything she does, probably has numerous children to various fathers because she is the type of woman who cannot live without a man to look after/abuse her. I could go on, but frankly I don't really see the need, It's easier to just say scum. Oh yes, I recognise that the above mentioned factors do not earn someone the label of scum, I merely cite them as the most salient factors associated in this kind of situation. But I missed one didn't I? One I would bet money on. I would bet that this creature spawned its first child at a young age. Again, I recognise there is nothing wrong with that, my own mother gave birth to her first child at the age of 20 and I have numerous friends who had children young. What I am saying is that a cycle has begun in this country which is getting out of hand. That cycle is that children are having children. These children fail miserably to raise their child with any sense of morality and apparently without common sense (or any knowledge beyond how to smoke a 'fag' or open a can). This is turn breeds more children who have children while they are children and again, fail to raise them to standards which barbarians never mind civilised beings see as satisfactory. This pattern is an alarming one and unfortunately is not managing to resolve itself.
So the question is, why isn't it resolving itself? What can you do about people who do not know how to be parents but have been forced into the situation? Apparently killing people isn't PC so I can't recommend that unfortunately. I would say education is the answer but to be honest I think I would have more chance of teaching my cat how to beat Deep Blue. Come to think of it, I might try that, it would be easier than sorting out inept parents. Take their children off them? Doesn't work, it's been tried, research reports on that are less than encouraging (not to mention dull to read). No, unfortunately education is the only weapon I can think of in the war against scum (Except maybe chemical sterilisation of the populace). As the article at the bottom of this tells you, the girl in question did not believe she could get pregnant the first time she had sex (although this is somewhat of a moot point considering she was drunk at the time anyway). Regardless this is evidence that sexual education in schools needs to be given at a younger age and needs to be actually worth having (Make it compulsory for fucks sake). Ultimately of course the responsibility rests with the parents but as I already mentioned that's not too viable an option in this case. What can we do? I don't know and that fills me with despair. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to tell me about them. Oh and if anyone doesn't like my viewpoint, well, you can tell me about it, but my current level of "give a fuck" is somewhat low.
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:: [10:24:41]This is a video created entirely from the footage of American police during demonstrations, with a commentary from a protestor. The first half of the (long) video mostly concerns the police collecting information upon individuals within the protest groups. They argue that this is dangerous for those individuals. Personally I believe it is standard protocol for Police to tape protests so that if they turn violent there is a chance to determine which people amongst the crowd were the violent ones and hopefully the police can then prevent such individuals from damaging peaceful protests in the future. Whether this is the intent of the police in this footage I do not know. The person providing the commentary certainly does not agree. My own viewpoint is not exactly fixed, I can easily be persuaded either way, although to me this is not sufficient evidence. The latter half of the video is of more interest to me and shows a protest during 2002 in which the police deliberately attack the peaceful protestors for no reason other than that they are protesting in the first place. The evidence is somewhat damning for the police force and is definately worth watching. Again it is hard to come to conclusions but I feel it is worth watching this so that you can come to your conclusions as I no doubt eventually will.
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:: [10:02:33]Tuesday was my last exam at university, so I guess I have now officially finished. Don't find out the results for a while and graduation isn't for a while either, but in my mind it's done and dusted. So, how did I find university? Well, I'm one of those people who enjoyed a natural ease when it comes to academic work. School and college were little more than a joke to me requiring a mere fragment of effort and so little attention that quite frankly I could have done it all in a year if I had the option (They really should give people that option, it would save time). So what about university? Well, I think first it's worth saying that the only reason I went to university when I did is because I wanted something to do and my friends were going. In retrospect a stupid reason for going (I was originally going to take a year out, but that means extra paperwork and so on). I decided psychology was the subject for me because I have always been interested in why people do the (often stupid) things they do. It is a fascinating subject and I love it. I have learnt quite a bit at university about psychology, although not as much as I would have liked.
There's the backstory, let's get to the point though. What is university actually like? I suppose it differs for everyone, I can only speak about my experiences. The social experience of university is an immense amount of fun, better than college because at college you always have the friends that came along from school, at university the chances of your friends being present or doing the same subject as you if they are present are much more slim. Making new friends is always good and if you stay in university accomodation for your first year then no doubt you will have a lot of fun there. So, on the social side, it's the shit. On the academic side, not so much. Years of obscene ease left me most arrogant when it came to academic matters and due to this, my effort when it came to my work was entirely nonexistant for the vast majority of the time. This was a mistake as university work is not so easy that I can successfully attain the highest of grades with no effort. In fact, if I had been serious about it, I would have had to devote time to my work which instead I devoted to more social endeavours. In hindsight, dumb. My advice to anyone planning to go to university would be to take it seriously and make sure you really want it. Personally, I'm not all that bothered, so actually remaining motivated is somewhat troublesome. When it comes to the actual subject I studied I was in for somewhat of a shock. Where GCSE's and A levels are all about the clever regurgitation of existing knowledge, I assumed university would be about the application of knowledge to a specific setting and the development of ones own ideas in proving capability. I was mistaken. While it did occur that practical skills were developed (such as the ability to make accurate diagnoses of mental illness) no one gives a fuck about what you think. You are less than nothing to these people and your opinion is worth about as much as that pile of excrement you last put into the toilet. I am not kidding here, you are a nobody and that is made intensely clear to you. The emphasis is very much about absorbing a massive amount of information (I would say understanding it was vital but I have seen essays by certain people which make me doubt this) and then regurgitating this in a certain way in an attempt to provide evidence for or against something. This may sound perfectly reasonable to you, indeed it does to me in a way, but it's just not enough. If you want something that will take a crapload of information and repeat it then I think you will find a photocopier will do nicely. Yes, in doing this mundane task we demonstrate an understanding of a subject and yes I agree that is very important. But I also think there should be a further (most would argue) harder component to a degree which involves actually thinking for yourself. I know that's a radical idea in this world of casualties of society but surely it is preferable? It seems to me that my degree has consisted of the development of practical skills relating to psychology (which I am grateful for) and of an understanding of a large amount of material on numerous topics (again, very important) but in terms of showing what I could do, all I needed to do was demonstrate that I have such knowledge and can use it to write dull essays. I guess the idea is that you then go on to use what you have learnt to do your own research. Fair enough, but really you would think they would try you out first to see what you are capable of.
Meh, anyway, moving on from my bitterness that I didn't get to voice my theories or opinions.. It's done and gone. So what am I going to do now? The short answer is I don't know. The long answer is that I have spent so many years in education that I am so restless and sick to the stomach of it that it's ridiculous. I think I may set myself up with a generic job (Don't really care what) for a year or so to build up my injured bank account and then after that move on to more challenging (And better paid) jobs. Sounds boring? Fuck you, I deserve a break and getting a normal full time job seems perfect for having that break! Confused as to how work can be a break? Well, it's simple, any job is in essence simplistic once you grasp it and that in itself is an easy task. Finding a job and doing it, working 9-5 sounds like heaven to me right now and gives me plenty of time to enjoy myself in any way I feel like when I'm not working. Excellent. But before that I think I might go visit various people around the country that I haven't seen in a while. You have been warned. You know who you are!