BNP Fiasco

"Anti-fascist protesters broke into BBC Television centre ahead of British National Party leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time."

Today my friends is a sad day in British politics, and NOT because the BBC scheduled the BNP leader Nick Griffin to attend Question Time, but because of the actions of the 'anti-fascist' protesters. The actions of those people plays straight into the BNP's hands.

In using violence and force to protest against the BNP these people are in fact making themselves appear no better than the party they are opposing. Why are they trying to deny the BNP the chance to show themselves and their politics to a widespread audience on BBC? By allowing Nick Griffin to speak, there is the opportunity for him to highlight the pathetic, ridiculous, and racist views of the far-right party.

It is a golden opportunity for the people of Britain to fully understand the extreme and dangerous opinions of the BNP, why give them a chance to make the accusation of people attempting to silence them? The main way the BNP have been damaged is when they have been interviewed in detail. This is when their true colours are shown and they make themselves look laughably stupid.

I have read much about the protesters saying that people died in the Second World War to oppose fascism and its views. But these heroes also died for our freedoms, and one of the main freedoms we have as British citizens is freedom to thought and expression. By attempting to stop a man air his views (albeit disgusting views) they are guilty of doing exactly what the fascists our forefathers died to stop did sixty years ago.

Let this man speak. Let him dig his own grave.

A thought for now

I will blog more on Brian's lecture today once I have had a proper chance to reflect on it. But for now I feel obliged to write a little on one of the topics from the lecture.

Einstein's theory of relativity is not one I expected to be blogging on, yet after Brian mentioned it today I felt I should. Wise old Albert said that time is relative. Brian gave the example of young lovers holding hands and being with each for 30 minutes can feel like a a measly five minutes, whereas five seconds of your hand being on a hot stove can feel like 30 minutes! I definitely support Einstein's theory in regards to the relativity of time, and I'm sure the majority of married couples do too! The first three months with someone special can pass without relent in a week. Yet after a year with the same 'special' someone it can begin to feel like a century!

An interesting thought for now.

(And I'm not bitter at all!)

James Joyce's Odyessy

The first experience I had of James Joyce's groundbreaking novel Ulysses was during my ill-fated stay at Bath Spa University. I had signed up for a degree in 'Creative Writing' and it was on my way to one of those lectures that I overheard first year English students complaining about the fact Joyce's book was one of the texts they had to study. Comments like, "it doesn't make sense" reverberated around the walls of the holding pen outside the lecture room. Thus, my first impression of Joyce's work of imperative importance in modernist literature was a negative one.

However, after doing a little bit of research into the book I became fascinated of its contents. I discovered that the title and contents of the book paralleled Homer's Odyssey, an epic poem that I had great pleasure in reading during my college days.

After dipping into Ulysses I did have sympathy for those poor Bath Spa students (mainly because they are still at Bath Spa). It is a difficult text to get to grips with. It's premise is of Leopold Bloom passing through an ordinary day in Dublin. Joyce uses a stream of consciousness narrative technique which makes for highly descriptive reading, sometimes overwhelming the reader.

I haven't been able to read all of Ulysses so I can't comment on themes within the text or what the text promotes, but I can see from what I have read that Ulysses is a very progressive novel, a complete standout novel of its generation and highly deserving of its place in the modernist literary canon.

Year Two, Lecture One

So another year of higher education has begun, and for this blog it begins with the topic of socialism with particular attention paid to Karl Marx.

Chris lectured us on the works of German idealist philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and his theory of dialectical argument to convey how change occurs. Hegel developed the formula for change that went as such:

• Thesis
• Anthesis
• Synthesis

Chris showed us how this formula could be used to describe any sort of change. He gave the example of:

• Thesis - Home team
• Anthesis - Away team
• Synthesis - Football match

Interestingly enough he also showed us how Hegel's works anticipated atomic theory:

• Thesis - Electron
• Anthesis - Proton
• Synthesis - Matter

German socialist philosopher Karl Marx, best known for his Communist Manifesto, supported Hegel's ideas and adapted and incorporated them in his own works. He embraced Hegel's theory for change. Marx described the 'story of history' as such:

• Thesis - Ruling Class
• Anthesis - Slave Class/Working Class
• Synthesis - Revolution

Marx's vision of historical change came true most memorably in 1917 through the Russian Revolutions. The ruling class of Tsar Nicholas II was victim of an uprising from organised workers (Soviets) and this resulted in revolution. True to Marxist theory the workers had 'nothing to lose but their chains' and they claimed state control of Russia.

Looking at things with a modern day hat on, the British government were recently accused of adopting socialist policy during the nationalisation of banks during the credit-crunch bail outs. The government insisted this was a crucial step to ensure the stability of the country's economy, but critics were quick to throw out the comparison of 2009 Britain to Leninist Russia where all banks were immediately nationalised.