Welcome to Oceania.

Yes, I know. I go on and on about this. A lot of people, much more influential than me, go on and on about it also. But I am angry. I am frustrated. I am very sad. I am in a deep existential depression and I seriously believe that the Enlightenment project is dead, liberty is dying and before long we will be having show trials …. if we aren’t already, show trials by social media anyway.

We are living in Oceania already.

We have already got – thought crime (extreme political correctness in its many forms), thought police (the guardians of social media and the corrupt institutions of main stream media), doublethink (the application of one standard of behaviour to one group and another standard to another group), newspeak (where words like free speech have lost all meaning and been redefined), the memory hole (as history is rewritten and distorted to suit the contemporary ‘narrative’), 2+2=5 (as people are required to express belief in totally false dogma to keep their jobs, social status, even liberty), the telescreen (as we are almost all linked to the internet which is closely watched and censored by powers that have no accountability.), the two-minute hate (hell, one week hate, one month hate, one year hate – on social media primarily) non-persons (people who have breached one of the multitude and often contradictory rules who ‘disappear’ from their jobs, public life and social media).

Room 101 hasn’t, as far as I know, appeared yet. But it will I fear.

The show trials by social media will soon, I am really afraid, become a reality. One could argue that some of the judicial actions against ‘thought criminals’ come into this category already. And then how far behind come the ‘disappearing’s ’ even the executions?

Paranoid? You bet your bloody life I am paranoid – Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

Afraid? You bet your bloody life I am afraid.

For example, has any one else experienced the following?:

1. When doing a Google search if the topic is a bit conservative, the top results are often nothing like what one was looking for. For example, I searched for a picture that was ‘pro-capitalist’. The vast majority of the pictures that came up were anti-capitalist.
   
   I have experienced this when searching for serious articles dealing with topics like gender and race. Anyone else experienced this?
2. I have also noticed a distinct slowing of response times when clicking on certain links – definitely slower than other, less controversial, links.

Paranoia? Maybe. Faulty internet connection? Maybe. I hope so, but I don’t know.

YouTube has recently begun a massive purge of material. People who are critical of the current ‘narrative’ are having their videos demonetised or even ‘memory-holed’.

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/08/01/youtube-will-artificially-limit-reach-non-rulebreaking-videos/

Google now dominates, almost totally, the internet and has gathered more information on individuals (you and me) even than state organizations do. Google is a part of corporate capitalism, however, paying millions of dollars to lobby the US Congress. It can be seen as a part of the states ‘outsourcing’ of surveillance.

http://gizmodo.com/the-many-ways-in-which-google-is-trying-to-take-over-th-813399268

YES … I know they are private companies and can do what they like, and I abhor the state regulation of private companies, as some people are asking for. But they are carefully editing a ‘world view’ and the CEO has even stated that ‘making people better people’ is a goal (there is a video of him saying this, but of course I cannot find it now!)

So, what to do? Google has no real competitors at this time. Luckily, there are alternatives to YouTube appearing:

https://vimeo.com/join#_=_

https://vid.me/

https://www.minds.com/

We are already living in the world of 1984. Things are not totally bleak …. yet. Although European civilization is now hanging by a very thin thread indeed, I believe that the USA is in a stronger position. At the very least, if it comes to a real fight, they have a lot of conservative people with weapons.

SO …. welcome to Oceania.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

The Things that I hold to be True.

I have been attempting to clarify my thoughts on a range of issues and to pin down what it is that I truly believe and would be prepared to stand up for. At my age it may well seem a little late I suppose, but I have tended to flop around a bit and I think I am at a point where I need to do this. Or, at least, try to do this.

I am an old, heterosexual, white, male – that makes me public enemy number one in these enlightened times, I know. I am English by birth and British by politics and law. Of both of these, I am very proud.

My ontological and epistemological positions can be summed up as follows:

I believe that there is a real reality out there that we can know the truth about. That reality may often not fit our wishes and ideological predilections, but it is there and we have to learn to live with it.

What I am about to list are things that I think are definitely true or more than likely to be true, or are, at least, reasonable. The positions that I take are based on sound science, sound empirical data, sound logic and sound reasoning. I am prepared to stand up and to argue for all of the claims I am about to make.

1. There are two sexes. Male and female.
2. There are cognitive and emotional differences between the two sexes.
3. There are cognitive and emotional differences between different genetic populations. In the old days, we would say races. But the modern concept of genetic populations doesn’t quite fit the old divisions.
4. Within a given population there is variation, usually a normal distribution, of cognitive and emotional development, skills, abilities and so on.
5. The individual is the only unit of analysis and legal status that matters. To reduce individuals to the average qualities of some fictitious social grouping of which they are by chance a member – nationality, race, gender, social class and so on is to commit a basic logical blunder.
6. The individual is the only unit of political, social and economic analysis that matters.
7. Human beings are biological machines, a product of evolution, and carry within them a range of cognitive and emotional mechanisms shaped by that evolution
8. As much as we try to, we cannot escape our biological nature, that we will live, age and die and that we have certain behavioural predispositions because of our chthonic nature.
9. Free will, as traditionally understood, is a myth. Maybe a necessary one, but a myth.
10. There are no ontological entities beyond the material. In other words, all religions and spiritual notions are just fairy stories. I am aware that some people, with whom I otherwise am very much in agreement, won’t like this. But, there it is. The only religious framework that has ever attracted me is Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism. Zen has no gods and no transcendental entities and is more of a philosophy of life than a religion. However, there is a European philosophy that is very similar to Zen, and recently I have become very interested in it, again. That philosophy is Stoicism. I think that Stoicism lost out to the myth and fascination of the ‘Mystical east’.
11. Capitalism, while far from perfect, is the best system yet devised by humanity for the production and distribution of economic goods. Due to capitalism humanity has been lifted as far above its dependence on brute nature as is possible to go.
12. Democracy … Mmmmm, democracy is extremely problematic. Riddled with difficulties and always in danger of being reduced to base populism. However, I somewhat reluctantly accept it is better than most alternatives. I confess that I have a soft spot for a monarchy, but that is maybe a little old fashioned.
13. While climate change is happening I am not convinced that it is more than part of the normal fluctuations of climate on this planet. There have been some huge variations in the past.
14. Ecological, or organic, foodstuffs and products are, to be crude, BS*. BS in great big steaming heaps.
15. Alternative energy sources are also, largely, BS. I am a committed believer in and supporter of nuclear power. Nuclear power would solve all our energy problems.
16. Alternative anything is usually BS too. For example, if ‘alternative medicines’ work, then they are medicine are they not?
17. I am not a pacifist. There are some things that I would definitely fight for. At my age and in my physical condition, I would last about 30 seconds in a war zone. But, for the right cause, I would be there.
18. Socialism and all its variants are the evilest political ideology ever to arise in the history of humanity. They have killed millions and ruined the lives of millions more.
19. I support minarchist libertarianism. That is to say, ideally, there should be no State, but recognising certain realities the State is necessary to provide a certain minimum framework of law, order and defence for individuals to pursue there lives. A night watchman State. And, once upon a time, I was a Revolutionary Marxist can you believe!
20. Apart from the minimum structure supplied by the State, all other services would be supplied by the market or voluntary associations, based on demand.

Well, that turned into a bit of a rag-tag semi-rant didn’t it? And there are some contradictions in there, and I am aware of them, I think. However, that is ‘The Things I hold to be True.’

If you read this, then thank you.

*(In case you don't know BS = Bullshit)

David Bruce Curtis - 9th August 2017 - Torp, Denmark.