In the spirit of my last post, I thought I'd post a beautiful piece of poetry, penned by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, himself a man of faith (albeit a sceptical, decidedly oppositional faith). This is his legendary "Prometheus," describing the scorn of the titular character towards the kind of gods who would leave him in a world as barren and cruel as ours.
Shroud your heaven, Zeus,
With cloudy vapours,
And do as you will, like the boy
That beheads thistles,
With oak-trees and mountain-tops;
You must my Earth
Now abandon to me,
And my hut, which you did not build,
And my hearth,
Whose glow
You begrudge me.
I know of nothing poorer
Under the sun, than you, Gods!
You are barely nourished
By sacrificial offerings
And prayerful exhalations
Your Majesty
And would starve, were
Not children and beggars
Hopeful fools.
When I was a child,
And did not know the in or out,
I turned my wandering eyes toward
The sun, as if beyond it there were
An ear to hear my lament,
A heart like mine,
To take pity on the afflicted.
Who helped me
Against the Titans' mischief?
Who delivered me from Death,
From Slavery?
Did you not accomplish it all yourself,
Holy, burning Heart?
And glowed, young and good,
Deceived, your thanks for salvation
To the sleeping one above?
I should honour you? For what?
Have you softened the sufferings,
Ever, of the burdened?
Have you stilled the tears,
Ever, of the anguished?
Was I not forged as a Man
By almighty Time
And the eternal Fate,
My masters and yours?
Do you somehow imagine
I should hate life,
Flee to the desert,
Because not every
Flowering dream may bloom?
Here I sit, forming people
In my image;
A race, to be like me,
To suffer, to weep,
To enjoy and delight themselves,
And to mock you –
As I do!
I am an anti-theist. I believe religious faith, even in instances where it might provide a "good outcome" (such as religious consolation of grieving family), is essentially wrong in all cases. Even in the aforementioned example, I would argue that this consolation is morally wrong due its being based on a lie. THE lie. God, Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu, whatever the fuck Scientologists believe in etc.
This position relies on two sources for me; Kantian deontological morality and Nietzschean anti-theism. Kant argues that in a moral and just society, it is reason, not superstition, that is paramount. The very essence of our humanity, including our capacity for beauty, springs not from the edict of some absent creator but from our own magnificent rationality. Kant also argues that any truly moral position must be applied universally and not relatively. With this in mind, how can I morally justify to myself the notion of faiths which apply moral laws haphazardly and would have a divine creator who lives by a different set of commandments than he (and in too many cases it is a he) would have me live by? Thou shalt not kill? Try telling that to the people of Egypt, you spiteful bastard.
Nietzsche requires a little less explaining. Though I disagree with his assertion that there must be a new kind of morality specifically for the exceptional few, I do agree that faith traps us in certain moral ways of thinking instead of encouraging a dynamic and evolutionary morality. And I agree that a world which continues along the path offered by faith will find itself lost in a wilderness of nihilism, arguably already occuring in our increasing militarised society with its great decadence paid for with the suffering of others. If we are to achieve a sense of moral enlightenment, we must transcend the barriers placed on us by faith.
We must begin to view the world through eyes given clearer sight by science, rationality and the common bonds of human experience informed by material existence and not the machinations of some laissez-faire deity. We must finish the work begun in the enlightenment to rid the world of superstion borne of ignorance. The realisation of such a world may be painful as we sever ourselves from the comfortable and easy ways of thinking provided by faith. As Nietzsche, the great anti-theist himself, says of such a realisation in The Gay Science:
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow
still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all
murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet
owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off
us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of
atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the
greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become
gods simply to appear worthy of it?"
Will a world free from faith be morally perfect? No. Humans will still find excuses to harm each other; in the name of capitalism for example. But I would happily, with vigour, bet my very life that such a world would morally better. And that is a thing worth weathering any storm for.
Well I haven't used this blog for a long time (more out of laziness than a lack of things to say) but I've decided to ressurect it. However I've also decided that this will be where I post personal musings, music related stuff etc. with all my political content being moved to http://socialistleftwards.blogspot.co.uk/
So yeah, will hopefully update frequently in future.
In the wake of the London riots and the resulting ill thought and ridiculous calls from David Cameron to effectively wage a war on the poor and the idea of collective responsibility, I thought I'd directly email Nick Clegg and request that he actually stand up for what he believes in (or used to believe in before he moronically grabbed at the pretty shiny bauble of power offered by the Tories. Or maybe he never believed in anything he said and truly is a Tory boy). I request that all of you reading to do the same if you care at all about the dire future that Cameron is dragging Britain towards. Nick Clegg's email address is: leader@libdems.or.uk
Dear Mr. Clegg,
I voted for the Liberal Democrats in May. However, had I known that a party I felt could create a true impetus for a fairer and more democratic United Kingdom would enter into a draconian coalition with a party who care only for greed and for making life easier for the economic and social elite, I would not have voted at all. I have almost lost faith in you and your party yet now, with the Prime Minister calling for ludicrous prison sentences and removal of the rights to life and liberty for hundreds of people, you are presented with an opportunity to prove that your party still stands for the noble values on which it was founded and not simply for the trappings of power which come to the detriment of, not only your party, but to the values of social liberty and social responsibility for which the progressive majority in Britain stand
I implore you, please defy your political masters in the Conservative party. Stand up against the idea that some in Britain can get away with gross invasions of privacy in the name of "journalism" but a man hastily typing ill-informed but ultimately harmless words can recieve a four year prison sentence.
Disband this coalition that speaks only in violent terms of a "war on gangs" and a "zero tolerance" approach, even as you know yourself that these are knee-jerk reactions that ignore the true cause of the problem.
Abandon a government that has demonstrated nought but a callousness towards the vulnerable in society that eclipses even the darkest moments of Thatcherism.
Rebel against an administration that has destroyed the futures of thousands of young people, now too poor to afford what was once an inalienable right; education.
The time has come to end the delusion that the Liberal Democrats can "soften" the malicious ideology driving the Tory party and the government it controls. You must start the process that leads to true, progressive change for the majority, not a regressive assault on the vulnerable that benefits only a tiny minority and you must do this by breaking the coalition.
Your party was founded to safeguard the liberty of the British people yet so far your first years in government have been marked by a removal of the liberties that matter and the extension of but one: the liberty to be too poor to survive at a basic level of human need.
Please, heed the desires of the British people and bring this brutal and vicious government to an end.
Well I've repeatedly been feasting my eyes on the new Skyrim gameplay demo fresh from E3 and I can safely say no game has excited me as much as this. Seriously I'm quivering at the mere thought... maybe it's early onset parkinsons though... anyway, I thought I'd try and add my own humble piece to the general hubbub and excitement surrounding what promises to be a social-life shattering experience:
5) The new game engine and AI: Now I'm not the tech-est of people but even I found the news of the new game engine powering Skyrim pretty damn exciting. For one thing the engine powering Oblivion and Fallout 3 could make a pretty inconsistent gaming experience (at times seemless and inspired, at times flat and, dare I say, tedious). Now don't get me wrong, I cherish both those games and rate them so highly but the new Creation engine has massively improved draw distances, insane levels of detail and extremely beautiful and dynamic lighting. Now for the AI... This drove me mental in Oblivion (For example today, playing Oblivion, a BLIND moth priest uttered "I need to stop drinking ale, I'm SEEING (!!!) things!" then proceeded to walk at the wall non-stop, then when returning through this area at the end of the quest he was still doing it!). Now the new Radiant AI system means civillians will have realistic lives, going about chores and work like a real human, and enemies will make intelligent tactical choices. Yum.
4) The stats/level-up/class/perks mechanic: Remember at the start of Oblivion (and nearly every other RPG in existence) when you chose a character class only to play for 5 hours and decide it was maybe not the best idea to play as a weird barbarian-thief-healer and have to start again? Well Skyrim's done away with that shit. Instead of choosing a class, you decide as you play what kinda character you want to be. Want to be a battle mage? Fine, just act like a battle mage. Decided you'd rather be an archer? Use your bow and you're an archer! Sounds pretty awesome. Stats, as usual, increase as you use them but the interesting part is that as you level them up you unlock perks for that skill! Not character perks but skill-specific ones. This creates so many strategy options. Will you try and be a good all-rounder but gain perks slowly or will you focus on a small skillset and become a highly specialised adventurer, risking some game options being closed to you. Things like this increase replay value, the sign of a truly great game.
3) The Menu system and user interface: Oblivion had usable menus and there was nothing *awful* about them but staring at an alphabetised list of weapons on, essentially, a sepia toned spreadsheet was a little uninspiring. Skyrim has totally overhauled the menu system, taking cues from apple's, admittedly, impressive iTunes interface. The player brings up the menu with B (or circle on PS3) and a four pointed compass appears with an option for each direction: The Inventory, which is neater and renders each item in full 3D to be fully appreciated at leisure, Magic and Spells, which comes with a breakdown of how each spell works, the Skills option which makes the the player gaze to the stars where each skill is represented as a constellation that also functions as a perk tree and finally the Map which is so beautiful it hurts with the camera pulling up and revealing a world fully rendered in 3D as a map. All this shows just what an immersive experience Bethesda are crafting.
2) Combat, enemies and assignment of weapons/spells: Combat in previous elder scrolls titles was pretty tedious... Hack, shield, hack shield, ransack corpse, done. In Skyrim, combat has been beefed up with the general feel seeming to suggest more urgency and more realism. Each hit seems to really feel like it connects. Plus the player gets special killing moves which cut to a 3rd person view as your character dispatches foes with Batman-like finesse, just like the awesome VATS system in Fallout. Plus there's the GENIUS ability to assign a spell or weapon in each hand, left trigger for left hand, right trigger for right hand, allowing for dual weilding and weapon/spell combos as well as standard sword and shield style setups. Plus you can combine spell effects or assign the same spell to both hands for extra power. Another final dimension for combat is the addition of dragon shouts. These act like beefed-up spells, doing things such as stopping time, calling on a lightning storm to blast foes or drowning enemies in dragon fire. Shouts are learned by learning words in the dragon language then using the souls of slain dragons to unlock the word's power. Which brings me onto the dragons! As well as enemies like giants and Draugr (inspired by the Draugr zombies of norse myth in real life) we face off against these staples of the fantasy genre (pretty much the main premise of the game tbh!) and killing them means absorbing the aforementioned souls. Dragon encounters are random and unscripted so beware!
1) The Graphics: Well I had to mention 'em! I know gameplay is more important but I've literally never seen anything in games as beautiful as this game. The sparse, Nordic landscapes are full of forbidding, stark beauty and the lighting and water effects are unbelievable. Character movement looks fluid and realistic while faces look like FACES and not horse arses like in Oblivion. Truly it's gorgeous.
Well hope you enjoyed reding my feelings towards this game. And honestly, don't expect to hear from me after 11.11.11...
these lists always prove controversial but here goes:
10) Dave Pybus (Cradle Of Filth, ex-Anathema) - I can see me being ridiculed by tr00 metallers here but he's really solid and has this awesome ruble below Cradle Of Filth's riffage and a nice rockier technique for his anathema years. Pretty underrated.
9) Tyr (Emperor touring bass player) - Bit obscure but just watch him on "Emperial Live Ceremony" the dude has some CHOPS! He can more than keep up with Ihsahn's guitar craziness and that's enough for me! =D
8) Orion (Behemoth) - +250 bpm 16th notes with his fingers. Nuff said.
7) Sean Beasley (Dying fetus) - Crazy picking, tapping mayhem while GROWLING! Love this guy!
6) Troy Sanders (Mastodon) - Don't even like Mastodon but troy's really inventive with a cool technique and I respect his skills a very great deal =D
5) Rex Brown (Pantera) - Dimebag was the best part of that amazing band but without rex's laid-back groove anchoring THOSE RIFFS down it just wouldn't have been the same...
4) Cliff Burton (Metallica) - I know most people put him higher but I never focussed on the 'Tallica's bass playing too much when I was getting into them. Was too low in the mix! But after gaining more educated ears you can't listen to Burton without appreciating what he did for the bass player in heavy metal.
3) Steve Harris (Iron maiden) - Another case of "don't like the band, love the bassist!" I love his technicality and the rumbling gallop he brings to things, I just don't much like Maiden =P
2) Martin Mendez (Opeth) - He's so awe-inspiring! He slings that fucking Jazz bass and just let's the glorious bass flow... He can play in such a crazy number of styles yet still retain his own unique style. He can do slap, fast metal stuff, folky stuff, jazz... Gaaawd...
1) Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) - Could there be anyone else for number 1? Nevermind that he's such a humbke and down-to-earth dude but as a musician he is unrivalled n the extreme metal genre for technique, theory knowledge, innovation and songwriting. He pretty much invented the 16th note, 3 finger pattern within death metal and has a unique, low treble, low bass, high mid tone that let's his ludicrously heavy rumble breath within the confines of that hyper-blast music he so pioneered. Much respect!
