Jim Stewart's Blog

Busy day today. First a quick test for coronavirus (if it turns out to be positive the world is doomed – I have not been in touch with people for so long now). Then running an online quiz.

It also didn’t help to get woken with urgent work early this morning.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Trump situation. Even if he survives there is a reasonable chance that he might need to take some time off work. In that case Mike Pense would take his place on a temporary basis. But just think – if Mike Pense had also been infected and turned ill on the same timeframe the job would have gone to Nancy Pelosi, and she would probably have been in charge over the crucial election period. It still could happen (now if that thought doesn’t get Republicans supporting masks then nothing will).

It struck me how weak that system was. Here Boris had a long line of fellow conservatives that would step up. Similarly we have a pretty powerless head of State in the Queen – and if the Queen, Charles and Will all ended up incapacitated there would be limited disruption to our political system. It might be a monarchy, but the way the system is designed offers much more resilience.

It strikes me that the republican system in the USA needs to adapt to survive. It really isn’t as robust as it seems.

Not long ago it was reported that there were 2 million requests for COVID tests a day. That wasn’t a broken system, it was a broken public. People knew they needed a test – they had been in touch with somebody that had probably got the virus. They needed the tests so they could carry on with “normal” life.

One of the things I found fascinating about the Trump infection is that a lot of the people involved get tested on a daily basis. If this is true it suggests that you can be infectious before you test positive. Or to put this another way, you need to have had the virus a couple of days before you can be tested positive.

So if those 2 million people had been tested then they would have come back negative – even if they were positive. But they all knew they needed to be tested. They knew better than the triage system that was stopping them getting tests.

I’ve watched this attitude grow over the years – it isn’t something new, but the certainty without basis is growing. Almost like a religion.

Actually this could be about selling my personal computer – I have one I need to get rid of. But no, this is about the other PC.

The new Starbucks advert is all about somebody changing their name to that associated with a different gender. There are several adverts that are all about how beautiful we are just the way we are (one for products that make us smell different to the way we smell).

It is interesting how the advertising industry has been so quick to find a way to sell current issues. Soon the moto will need to be “black lives sell”.

Did you ever wonder about why there are so many different groups represented in adverts? Earlier this year an advert featuring three men was banned because it did not include women, on the grounds that it was “harmful”. The advert did not say anything about gender, it just featured three men. The company had around 90% male clients, so I guess you could argue that they were causing themselves harm by not tapping in to a female market.

Personally I find the Starbucks add much more objectionable, because I get an impression that they are using people.

A visit from Openreach today – they were due to arrive next week. Looks like they are serious about giving me a fibre connection to the house. Not only that but they are giving me a service better than they promise.

Over the past few months I’ve had to use call centres more than usual and there is normally an apology about people working from home. But one thing I have noticed is that the person I get through to is much more human. I find the experience really positive. I feel much more inclined to buy more from salespeople than I did before.

We did a trial of a number of different alternative working arrangements when I worked in one big organisation. I compressed my week in to 3 very long days. After a couple of months my health had improved significantly.

I was interested to see the uniforms used in the presidential debate this week – suits.

There is a strange attitude in the business world about what appropriate dress codes are and how we all are much more efficient when we work 9 to 5 in an office setting.

The past few months have challenged all of this.

But this is much more than just a business choice. This is about exclusion. There are so many young people that would feel uncomfortable in the world of office suits but that could excel in business. The world of business suits is a foreign land, where people have traditions they don’t understand and speak a language that is foreign to them.

Very interesting stories on Channel 4 News at the moment about the Trump campaign database from 2016 and the targeting of voters.

They seem to be making a lot about what actions the campaign took, but they seem to have missed one of the more interesting points.

When I was reviewing my family history at the National Archive I discovered some secret service information on one of them.

This was 1938 – and they had enough information to track him. Most of us don’t care about this kind of thing because, well, who would be interested in us, we are the bland underbelly of society.

But the Trump database covered more than 85% of the people eligible to vote in the USA. That means the average Joe is on the database. Channel 4 went round talking to people telling them what information was on the database.

I remember we had a local issue that the council wanted to talk to us about – they were going to put in road calming humps – my view was that the one planned outside my house, which sat on a 90 degree corner, was a waste of time (and dangerous). As I talked to the councillor at the end she looked through a paper printout (a few cm thick) and told me what way they thought I voted. I had never told anybody how I voted. This was in the early 1990s.

The fact that come out to me from this set of reports is just how detailed the information being collected about the grey majority is, and how much it is being used to try to manipulate all of us, whether for shopping or for voting. Social media has made this much easier. Are you being manipulated?

I often think about posting rubbish just to see what effect it has. Why not give it a try?

Another quote from a native American farmer on Farmaid:

It is no longer important who is to blame; it is important who will fix it.

Quite an interesting idea, not common today. We always seem to be looking for blame. We are adopting the compensation culture from the USA. Find the blame and take their money.

The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.

So often we live our lives believing we are always right.

An interesting comment on Farmaid from a native American farmer when talking about farming.

W are not born with rights, we are born with responsibilities.

Quite interesting, especially if you compare it to the wording in Genesis.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”

Genesis 1 26

Responsibility for the planet.

There are a number of human rights texts around. Two of the ones that are important to us are the universal declaration and the European Human Rights convention. There are others, but these are the most important to us.

The European Convention is based on the Universal Declaration. What I find interesting is Article 29 in the Universal Declaration, which I cannot find in the European Convention.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 29 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

“Everyone has duties to the community”. So what are the duties we have?

I can remember decades ago watching an episode of Hill Street Blues where there was a guy that wore a tinfoil hat to stop the aliens reading his brain.

The X-files was a well known series of outrageous ideas about aliens interfering in the world. I remember a road trip in the USA when I tuned in to a radio station that actually believed in some of the stuff on X-files.

Today we had protests in London, where some people complained that the police were protecting paedophiles. In case you don’t know this is an idea that there is a secret cabal that are abducting and smuggling to drink their blood. It tends to be anti-Semitic as well.

We have adopted a PC attitude that says “your are entitled to your views”. In the world of ideas there is no right and wrong. But has this now crept in to the physical world? Have we now got to a point where we can no longer say “that idea is dumb”?

What surprises me is the number of people that are now posting dumb stuff because it trashes the idea of a political party they don’t like. Does the end really justify the means?

The weekend looms large, I wonder what joys it holds? For me it is going to be really busy this weekend. It will start with F1, move on to Farmaid and then go back to F1. And then there is the rest of the normal weekend stuff to take care of.

I think I’ll make a couple of paperweights this weekend. So far this week I’ve made 14 candles (well, 13 – one was a bit of a failure). I knew it was a mistake signing up for a Hobbycraft account. This is going to bankrupt me.

There is something about making things that improves the mood. For some it is physical items like woodwork. For others it might be photography. Or it might even be something like writing a blog. But I have noticed a lot of people seem to be starting to get creative.

Reminded me of the parable of the bent manager

I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behaviour.

Seems a bit fitting – using adversity to stimulate creative survival. The second part is an interesting challenge. Concentrate on the bare essentials in order to really live. Another reminder that stuff stops you really living.

Yes, we are there again. Shops in Scotland have sold out of toilet paper. Morrisons has introduced toilet paper rationing. I really feel I am living in a dream – surely the world cannot be this crazy.

I enjoy liquorice – and now I read about a man that died as a result of eating it. I have several packets waiting for me on the table downstairs. Should I risk eating it? It is Scandinavian style, which is a lot stronger than normal UK stuff. I love Cactus flavour.

But it does have laxative qualities – is it wise to eat it with the imminent toilet paper famine?

Then I see the Labour Party leader arguing for more money to be given to business owners. I am getting really confused.

And now we have the Glasgow conference on climate issues coming up, and in the run up we have a series of announcements from Boris at the UN that sounds progressive even by Green Party standards.

No, I really have entered an alternate universe.

Just a short time ago I was listening to a young teenager at the Amos conference talk about the future he dreamed about. It wasn’t going to Mars, or exploring distant galaxies. It was a world hat rediscovered local communities. And here we are in the middle of a pandemic that has created a world where this now looks not only viable, but prefferable.

Today I spent time discussing “The Brack Report” with a friend. It was made decades ago and was a future gazing exercise about energy. Things that were beyond belief in those days seem to be close to reality today.

Maybe we can follow dreams, but I still feel out of place. Another sign of age? Maybe, but at least I can look forward to this over the weekend: