CFTHF: Settling in

Well, my third year of University has just finished its first week and boy what a ride.

Anyone who's been to college or even just moving in general is well acquainted with the usual shenanigens such an operation involves, doubly so after having to rearrange some modules in order to qualify for practice. So far however, nothing in my current apartment is broken, flooded and/or on fire so I have to say moving has been a success.

The real prize is of course the classes, my legal studies have been about as thick and heavy as one might expect only doubly so this year but horrors of horrors my political minor this year happens to be politics of Identity and I am stuck with the same feminist teacher who took us for an ideology lecture some two years past and failed to impress anybody, the women of the class included, when explaining how modern feminism rejects scientific studies into the differences of the genders as 'sexist'.

Predictably with a class entitled 'Politics of Identity' its extremely contemporary focusing heavily on feminism and LGBT rights. It failed to impress me that our first lecture was specifically about questioning whether or not failing to question what we think as per what society informs us (about all things mind) means we dont count as human and more count as 'dancers (As per the Killers song which was an ironic joke in itself) I could write an essay on why her approach at getting us to question ourselves was wrong alone and briefly considered swapping out modules.

I think however I shall stay with this class and give my poor, unsuspecting lecturer some ever living hell with philosophical queries and identity speculation. I am myself of course, a living paradox (as my own studies advisor called me when he learned of my monarchism and my roots and wondering what the hell happened) so when she inevitably questions me directly about how I ''dont question'' society's standards I can pull out one hell of a wild card.

That annoyance aside I need to resolve myself to be more attentive to my religious duties and get myself to Mass more often since I live right beside a railway with a cheap ride straight to Belfast city, been a bit negligent as of late.

Oh dont worry I wont be spending too many other posts on my personal status, usually never do and will resume regular blogging once my head stops spinning.

Irish Voters need to Vote with their morality

I am well aware of the hypocracy of a Monarchist such as myself endorsing one or more potential candidates for the Aras, so this post will not contain such an endorsement, and I am well aware of the liberal infestation that is crippling the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in this Nation, so we cannot expect the Bishops to be too stringent on matters of faith and morals with regards to how their flock views Politics, even though they bloody well should be doing such. It is up to the Magisterium and His Holiness to decide what to do with the Irish Church.

Instead this post is an Appeal to any Clergy and Religious who happen across my blog, as well as Faithful Irish Catholics to encourage the one thing that will put the fear of God into our blighted political class, and no it is not fomenting an angry mob, it is encouraging the people to realise however ineffectual they may see their votes, those votes count as actions and God will view them as such.

I do not mean to preach to you, for that is arrogance, merely point out that encouraging Catholics in America to vote with their conscience caused a storm of controversy over the pond, but it also meant that it was not a total landslide of the Catholic vote that elected Obama into Office (even though it was still a shamefully high percentage), Ireland is full of Lapsed Catholics, many of whom may or may not be angry at the Church, but most of whom see faith as inconsequential to their societal actions. And as long as the Church does not stress how civic actions such as voting can affect their souls, why would they?

I know this is but one problem amongst MANY the Church is dealing with right now in terms to a weakening of the faith by sabotuers, both intentional and unintentional. But if we do not start campagining for conscience based voting now, someone like David Norris may very well be able to get into the Aras next year, or some much worse then him, and the entire political class of Ireland may increase in liberalization, further damaging the country and the Church. So as that I urge my fellow Irish Catholics to encourage the concept of conscience voting here. Before the next abortion referendum rolls around.

Don't pretend that you don't know about its inevitability.

National Shame

No no, not going to talk about Irish being ashamed of themselves in general, today its about contemporary politics.

It is no surprise that the shamed Senator David Norris is going to take a second shot at the Aras, it is shameful however, that Fine Fail is going to be supporting him. For those not in the know David Norris is potentially the most socially liberal candidate for the Presidency and was involved in a scandal where he gave legal aid to a friend convicted of peadophilia in Israel, something that destroyed his chances and seemed to have doomed him to the political wilderness, and I had previously commented that it was indictitive of a poor pocket of political acumen to not have seen the reaction coming.

However something extraordinary has occured since then. All manner of people not of the Political class have been approached (either by the parties or public speculation) with the interest of running for the presidency. This ranges from Uncle Gaybo (the affectionate nickname of the fatherfigure of Irish Radio, not someone I agree with but I can see the affection everyone else has for him) to the Tyrone County Football Club Manager. Most of these sorts have declined, either through lack of interest in obtaining power, or in the case of Gaybo, wishing to avoid the ludicrous media attention to his private life. In other words they were somewhat decent men, and probably would've made halfway decent presidents (even if I didn't particularly like a few of them). This searching of non-conventional candidates shouldn't come as a surprise, but it does, it displays a certain level of distrust in the political class and the 'old families' of Irish Politics. (I did touch upon the renaissance family structures of Irish politics didn't I? I am sure I have)

Now however, without strong contention for the Aras from outside sources (friends and enemies openly admitted that if Gaybo had of went for the presidency, he would have got it in a landslide), David Norris seeks to worm his way back into political favour and run for the Aras again. And people are taking him seriously.

Please, someone, anyone, run for the Aras, if only to deny this man the representative power it wields... Oh God... I sound like a Republican. Pretty soon I'll probably be rooting for some other candidate because he's 'the lesser evil' to boot. Thus is the corruption of Democracy I suppose.

The Standards of Space Aliens

It is a ludicrous, yet seemingly prevelant, modern notion that those who claim intellectual superiority often cite that space aliens would laugh at us primitive humans for our superstitious belief in hereditary birthright being integral in a functioning government (James Blair on that Republic UK site) as well as laughing at us for worshipping our primitive sky Gods (Dawkins and any number of 'New Athiests' which are really just ordinary atheist possessed with an evangelistic zeal). And as someone profoundly interested in space colonization and exploration I have alot to say about the second group, but let us deal with the first as that is a more pressing concern to Monarchists.

I bring this up because this is an apparent standard amongst revolutionaries, that we will be judged by egalitarian and democratic ideals because apparently they believe that if advanced civilizations in this galaxy visit our own, they too will hold these standards. If you pay attention to any media involving aliens, you will find that beyond usual 'humanization' of space aliens to make them relatable to audiences (you know, how 99% of species in star trek or star wars are all bipedal humanoids), aliens will often be used as metaphors for current events in our world. Such as the recent remake of the day the world stood still is about space aliens killing the entirety of humanity JUST to save our planet which we are polluting. No, really. As this is the case, aliens will often espouse 'democratic' tendencies, they will preach tolerence, will look down on humans who argue and fight amongst ourselves, reduce centuries of human struggle to 'pointlessness' and how we should all get along and eat ice cream... or else.

This trope is so pervasive that the commonly held belief is that real aliens will be a gentle 'elder' race that would seek to 'save humanity from ourselves' and they will 'come in peace' and wish to raise us up, probably so we can join the big hippie space federation in the sky, which will of course, be one collossal UN (Mass Effect, Star wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, damn near any sci fi franchise you care to name) And these aliens will of course have gotten rid of 'petty distinctions amongst themselves such as race, class, gender and sexuality. See that recent comedy movie Paul? With the alien? The one that wasn't even that funny? The grey alien is the leftist ideal of the Human race, hyper intelligent, hedonistic, pan-sexual, androgynous, atheist and manipulates human popular culture from behind the scenes. If the movie was not funny it was at least educational. Almost all alien cultures presented in media are uniform, have one language, all look the same (to the point where even minor variations such as skin colour in humans, are unheard of), come from a jungle planet, or a desert planet, or an ice planet or a city planet. All these aliens represent the secular ideal, where the variations of culture language religion philosophy and genetics have been ironed out in a secularization of their species, which they always look down on humans for not doing similarly fast enough.

You are probably guessing I hold an alternate view of things, yes? Well yes I do, and here's why:

Humanity is violent and competitive because Nature is harsh, whatever your view on human nature is, throughout most of humanity's existence finding enough sustainence just to make sure everybody in the tribe doesn't die was always a challenge, finding fresh water and good hunting grounds often led to the first wars our ancestors had. As societies became large and more complicated wars were fought over trade routes, economics and ideals. A consequence of the impossibility of human civilizations being uniform due to distance and environment.

Any alien species anywhere, whatever form they take, unless they come from a barren rock of a world WILL have a diversity of environment on their homeworlds in some manner, they WILL have a harsh time surviving and advancing, and unless they are controlled by a hive mind like some hyper-evolved ant species, they will have had a competitive existence, wars would be fought between different cultures of the same alien species, just like us, it is an inevitability of nature presuming they're a fallen race like us.

So what am I getting at? I am saying that the likely 'default' model of any alien species you care to meet is also monarchical, or at least something similar. Consider what I have just said and consider the nature of many of the socially advanced animals on our world who live in groups, prides of lions and packs of wolves have alpha males, a hierarchy. Primates, with some of the most sophisticated social interactions beneath our own as a species, have a social order to them, often under one leader, the alpha. Animals bred in competitive environments that form groups in order to survive will often form around central figures as their intelligence and social sophistication advances. Therefore any advanced civilization that comes to earth actually has a significant chance of being under a hereditary system itself or some other form of autocracy (which is inevitable in any extra-steller society regardless of their pre-space age political arrangements, but thats for another post), much more likely then the secular democratic ideal. Oh, and most likely they'll find us by accident and seek to take advantage of us right away, likely claiming it was they who founded our first religions and pretended to be the gods of various human religions, (hey, remember the conquistadors and the Aztecs? Yeah, exact same situation, except in space). I have yet to hear any legitimately intelligent reason as to why they would not do so, other then the generic ''They would have advanced far beyond such pettiness'' no they would not have. No one would have, no amount of technology would be able to compensate for baser desires.

Even ignoring the fact that the standards of Space Aliens is utterly irrelevant to how our species governs itself as we would be, probably in the truest sense of the phrase, 'A nation apart' from any alien species, the possessiveness of liberals and revolutionaries over the 'intellectual high ground is so complete yet so unfounded, that many would sooner dismiss their claim that 'the space aliens will judge your primitive ways' rather then engage the argument and take it away from them like they rightfully, and easily should. They do this to limit us, saying democracy is 'progress', the space alien analogy is a shaming tactic used to reinforce their rhetoric, even though they know no more about any alien civilization and its intricacies then the rest of us do. It is exactly the same as athiests claiming the discovery of space aliens will 'destroy' human religions and beliefs. There is no substance to it, and they probably don't believe it themselves as anyone who has studied human religions, even as a passing interest, will know that they would be surprisingly rugged in the face of an alien race, and probably seek to convert them to boot, because why the hell not? They don't believe it, they want US to believe it, to scare us, to make us dig into our trenches and make us look backward by claiming they are looking forward. Personally my own view is that space is the ocean and that other worlds are just other lands, and really is quite literally, no different from the age of exploration. Mars is land, let us build our colonies there, and then build a cathedral and an observatory to complete the domination.

History is on the side of monarchism and tradition, and when our opponents cannot snatch history from us, they will seek to claim the future and bar us from it. I say we shalt take it from them as well.

''Rights''

I have a great deal to say about rights, but neither the energy nor the time to post a full and thorough post dealing with the nebulous concept, (And it is a nebulous one, let me tell you) but I can easily say this:

If I, for some reason, move to an Islamic Country, or a Buddhist one, and send my children to a School with a very specific religious ethos that I do not agree with, I logically forfeit my right to complain when my child in said country is exposed to Islamic religious culture or Buddhist spirituality, even if that exposure is nothing more then the odd pious image on the wall, or a prayer area.

So pray tell dear readers;

Why is it that a Couple (one of whom, the wife I think, is American) in the Republic of Ireland feel their rights are being trampled on when they send their child to a Catholic school and that child is *shock and horror of horrors* exposed to a Catholic Ethos? And that they believe this so fervently they're willing to fight the case all the way to the supreme court? Are we seriously entertaining this bloody nonsense!?

Their argument of course is that their isnt enough 'state schools' which are secular, in their area so they had to send their child to a religious school. I wont make an uneducated judgement on the family's financial circumstance but I'm pretty sure taking potential schools into consideration is an integral part of the process of where you decide to live. And is also often a reason many people pack their bags and move to another area of the country.

But fine lets say that was non-negotiable for them. For whatever reason, and lets get back to rights. What exactly makes this couple think that their rights are so sacrosanct that it is worth, oh, lets say, trampling the freedom and rights of non-state schools to decide their individual cultures, Identities and ethos? Do they think they are the only persons involved with this school that matter?

Really I don't want to come off as angry, but with current threats from outside education groups ''endorsed by celebrities'' no less attempting to pressure the Northern Irish government to encourage integration schools of mix religion, this sort of carry on really gets under my skin. Religious schools have achieved in Ireland a degree of academic excellence that puts us squarely on par with our neighbours and above in some cases, but thats a post for another time. I am just thoroughly against the rigid control of schools and I myself am in favour of academic competition and excellence and I will rage and rage hard against the egalitarian predilections taken towards education. So when 'rights' and 'fairness' and 'integration' are used in educational circles as buzz words for reform, my blood boils and I fear the continued destruction of education as a treasure which our children may inherit.

Why doesn't someone establish a specifically 'Athiest' school somewhere? I wouldn't mind that, it would at least shut up one part of the larger problem.