05
Mar

our lack of wisdom and an action plan for armageddon

If you do one thing today, stop and watch Barry Schwartz’s talk on practical wisdom as its one of those “wow” moments where you realise what is so blindingly obvious. I could say so much about this and there are so many themes to pick up on – moral will/skill, virtue, character, but above all, it highlights one thing in particular – we have become so dependent on following rules, bureaucracy and procedure that we’ve forgotten the predominant issue that all human interaction is moral work and needs everyday wisdom to be done right because it involves other human beings. And we need to know how to do the right thing for the right reasons, not just follow the rules.

Stephen Petranek’s talk on “10 ways the world could suddenly end” is a very amusing presentation about how we could prepare for our obsolescence. It’s frighteningly closer than you might think. According to the bumph, he is an “eloquent advocate for making policy decisions based on an unflinching look at our worst fears. Although his apocalyptic predictions may seem dire and inevitable, he argues precisely the opposite, and presents plausible goals that will defuse most of these catastrophes. Just in case that isn’t enough, he makes the case for humankind adopting a forward-looking policy of space exploration and colonization to get us out of here alive.”

05
Mar

prescribing a new deal for the mind

When i was 14 i remember being sat in a history class with my teacher Mr Scott learning about the Second World War – that tedious curriculum essential – and being jolted out of my boredom by learning about something Roosevelt did to alleviate the Great Depression that struck me as a phenomenal idea. It’s come back to revisit me half a life later.

America was unemployed and broken in 1935. Instead of benefits, through the Works Progress Administration, FDR put the people to work on public projects where they were employed by the government under the umbrella of the “New Deal” (yes, it wasn’t a “New” Labour idea). 17,562 public buildings, 279,804 miles of roads, 29,084 bridges, 357 airports, more than 30,000 dams and 15,000 parks were built. Together they rebuilt the nation. Something just struck me about how simple and effective it was in achieving multiple aims, even despite the criticism that the war was a better national employer. I may have been 14, but it resonated massively.  So simple, so politically astute, and so efficient in its aims, particularly for a demoralised country that had grown used to not being able to work.

Whilst doing PR stuff for “Michael’s Resignation”, I recently had the good fortune to talk with Martin Bright, political editor of New Statesman magazine. He was rather enthused about the way we were encouraging people to get together as a community and prosper each other in a recession, and introduced me to one of his articles for the NS titled “A New Deal Of The Mind”. I was fascinated. We were clearly thinking along similar lines.

Martin’s thinking is interesting. One of the biggest by-products of the “New Deal” was a massive surge in creative talent breaking through, and unexpected new wonders in the world of writing, arts and academia. His argument is that the government needs to be more imaginative in the ideas it engages to create jobs, and because of our rich cultural heritage for the creative disciplines, needs to be very careful about just leaving creativity dead in the water because its a goldmine of economy recovery.

“At a Whitehall reception over Christmas, I bumped into a cabinet minister closely involved with the government’s plans to buck the economic downturn. I asked him what would be done for middle-class people who found themselves out of work. What would happen, for example, to the first graduates in a generation who were leaving university with no jobs to go to? I suggested that the legions of unemployed IT workers, media workers and bankers were unlikely to apply for work-creation schemes already announced by the government, such as lagging roofs or laying broadband (or be very good at it). He answered with a shrug: “Well, they can always become teachers or go back to college.”

The announcement by John Denham, the Universities and Skills Secretary, of a programme of internships for recent graduates with companies such as Microsoft and Barclays shows that at least one person in government is thinking about the potential loss of intellectual capital which the recession could entail. But if this turns out to be as deep and long as some now suspect it will be, there will need to be some seriously creative thinking, a “New Deal of the Mind” to equip people who work with their brains or in the creative industries for the challenges ahead. Clearly, this would not be cost-free, but if ministers have decided to go down the route of work creation backed by borrowing, they should at least do it with some imagination and flair.”

How far are we away from a depression? 6 months. 2 more quarters. A recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth; a depression is 4.

The “New Deal of the Mind” has taken off quite quickly and is growing fast. Important people are taking notice. Martin and his colleagues are setting up a new website for the initiative and starting on the long road to lobbying Westminster to actually do something help creative people create their way out of our recession. To do that, they’re collecting stories, and want to know the roadblocks creative people face in this country to prosper and be recognised. Our movie project is apparently quite the flagship for this new bold way of doing things, so a DVD presentation will be being played in Downing St in 2 weeks or so.

Yes, i know, it’s going to be a big list. Starting with why on earth you need a licence for live music or have to pay the council to film in the street when you are being watched by CCTV.

Read the article here:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/martin-bright/2009/01/deal-work-fdr-government

Join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121276120429

The new site will be here:
http://www.newdealofthemind.com/

27
Feb

homo evolutis emerging from the great reboot

Evolution is a constant process; one we are engaged in now, if slow. It’s fascinating to think that as the human generations pass, we are changing and adapting as a species even if we can’t see it here and now every day. Natural selection is brutal, but it’s extremely effective and more complex than it appears on first reflection. New parts of the brain have emerged, such as a receptor for Valium, as well as natural immunity to pathogens (mainly in Africa).

There have been 22 known variants of hominid, of which we are one that appeared 0.0019BN years ago. Darwin noted that evolution was a natural state, and by default, it is fair to say that it is common for hominids to evolve.

At TED, Juan Enriquez, an amazing biotech visionary, says that humanity is on the verge of becoming a new and utterly unique species, which he dubs Homo Evolutis. What makes this species so unique is that it “takes direct and deliberate control over the evolution of their species, and of other species.” Calling it the “ultimate reboot,” he points to the conflux of DNA manipulation and therapy, tissue generation, and robotics as making this great leap possible. The 3 principles he claims give us the ability to evolve ourselves are the ability to engineer cells, tissue and robots. Put that together with our systems of communication, knowledge/emotional transfer (pychology, self-help, education etc), and you have a picture of a species that is more than separate from the others.

Some of this is as scary as it is exciting – the devaluation of currency and potential loss of the dollar are easily within reach. It’s interesting to see America’s reaction under Obama, and our government’s puppy-dog mimicry that really makes it look like the only leadership we’re getting is coming from the US.

How many times does it have to be said that the arts, science and technology are responsible for our social, economic and financial future, that education is the solution to a maelstrom of problems, and that morally-dubious professions like banking are archaic and responsible for rot, before governments actually listen and look to making life better for their peoples? You’d think they wanted the votes?

More:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/02/we-are-becoming-a-new-species-we-are-becoming-homo-evolutis.ars

26
Feb

e-consultancy interview & coverage so far

Alex Cameron is the leader of a community of young British film makers which is asking the general public to contribute online to the costs of making their film ‘Michael’s Resignation’ in return for a share of any profits made from the film.

I’ve been talking to Alex about the project, which has made use of social media sites like Facebook to attract talent, promote, and even write the script for the film, and the challenges he has had in getting the project together…

Why did you have to fund the movie yourself?

We didn’t have to per se, but we went through all the normal options and decided we wanted to do it very differently to the norm and achieve something more substantial.

So it wasn’t just lack of funds?

No it was just something that developed naturally from what we were already doing – we’d written a script online together with nearly 70 scriptwriters, and it had become a community automatically.

Write it together, film it together, so why not fund it together?

Can you explain how the funding model works?

It uses a very simple crowd-sourcing model that’s been done before with a philanthropic twist.
The first idea was donations, but in the middle of a recession it seems gratuitous to ask for that, so if people were going to help us, we wanted to give back and help them too, so it then it evolved into a way of motivating others to help us by making it in their interests to do so.

In terms of a model, Indie films traditionally make their money back via theatrical and residential distribution, plus merchandising/below-the-line accumulated revenues so for us, we just said let’s treat it as providing a return on donations invested; whatever we make back within a year, we give back to those who believed in us.

How many of the 50,000 shares have been purchased? Are you on track?

We did a limited trial run to identify potential teething problems, and within 2 weeks had raised just over £4000, at £1 per share. It was important to take a small first step to ensure we could scale, in time for a much larger press release to media, so we put a deliberate pause in place to change server and strengthen up the package.

Is this where you are with the project now?

We certainly are, and this week we are working with PR Newswire (who did the Million Dollar Homepage) to speak to national outlets – TV, radio, newspapers, bloggers etc.

It’s been a huge learning curve but an incredible achievement of its own. Rocketing off the blocks certainly teaches you a lot.

You have had problems with online payment providers like Google Checkout – what were the issues?

It’s been one of the biggest sticking points. Most providers just aren’t geared up for new ideas and business models. Also, online fraud, crazy schemes and the like have given social media and community investment a bad name.

Google, NoChex and others don’t allow any type of financial-related project or donation-based mechanisms unless they are from a registered charity, while merchant account providers are incredibly, rigid about fitting you into an existing box when it comes to business models.

We’ve gone out of our way to be transparent and encourage trust, but the environment is simply hostile to new ideas and models, especially socially-driven ones.

Have you sorted these issues out now?

Yes, we’ve resolved the issues fully and have a fully qualified merchant account with a very understanding provider which has even gone out of their way to help by holding funds in escrow for us, to be even more transparent and accountable.

What kind of guarantees have you put in place for investors?

Everything we possibly can. The first thing is a legal framework, composed of a material paper trail. The second is complete transparency and communication, which means keeping our word on the smallest possible things.

Thirdly, we have a chain of accountability backed by Barclays, working with Companies House & the FSA, having our credit card provider hold funds in escrow.

The guarantee is simple: if we don’t hit target, we give every penny back, if we break even, every penny comes back, and if we make a healthy profit, investors see a return.

What happens to the investment if you fail to secure a distribution deal?

We’ve given ourselves a healthy 12 months to secure a deal from a database of over 1,000 people all over the world, so to break even we need to bring in £50,000, which could happen with a deal from one or two broadcasters or even PPV.

I believe with diligence we will be able to secure multiple deals, but worst case scenario is that the £10 you gave acts as an intangible investment in several hundred people’s media careers; scriptwriters, filmmakers, bands etc.

How have you made use of social networks and social media sites, to raise the money?

We did all of it through Facebook! Without social media, none of this would even exist in the first place. We recruited the writers and production people through Facebook, and most of our initial payments came through contacts on LinkedIn.

We are using MySpace as a way to collect unsigned bands for the soundtrack, 600+ followers on Twitter to keep up with our progress, and we are building a network of 300 social sites to draw traffic to the main movie website. In short, this project was built on top of social networking technology.

Which ones have worked best for you?

Facebook by a mile, it’s the single facilitating factor, alliteration aside.

Why Facebook especially?

Twitter has been surprisingly useful in terms of traffic, but Facebook has the numbers and ability to group people with interests and personality. It seems easier to find and reach large groups of people with similar interests on Facebook, whereas MySpace is an absolute chaotic mess.

We have had our problems with Facebook; for instance, trying to chat amongst 20 people at a time means over 15 of us have had account suspensions for ‘using the inbox as a chat feature’. It doesn’t scale too well as a group tool, which is where PlotBot.com comes in very handy when scriptwriting.

Do you think this crowd-sourcing model will work for other creative projects? Are you using it to source talent as well as finance?

Absolutely – the whole project is designed a platform to discover and showcase new talent, as well as nurture/encourage it. The current risk-averse climate is producing the worst TV in decades.

I wish I could be more optimistic on it but from our experience so far, the idea of community doesn’t seem to be one that the system at large is very responsive to, sadly. There are massive practical issues that need to be resolved (e.g. finance, accountability) and more than anything else, UK culture is not encouraging of new enterprise, despite the patter about being all for new talent and ideas.

What have been the main stumbling blocks along the way?

Establishment ones, definitely. Finding the people was easy as there is so much passion, enthusiasm, faith and energy out there to collaborate and be creative, as well as achieve great things. The blocks came when we asked people for help – card providers, film industry types and business colleagues.

I think it all comes down to seeing the world differently – one that is not about money, but about resources. Achieving things is about whether you have the resources, and money is the exchange mechanism – acquire the resources, and the money isn’t such a biggie. We’ve got the equivalent of a 5M production and have only had to locate the money for cameras/SFX, which isn’t inconsiderable of course, but it’s very difficult to alleviate.

Are you still optimistic about getting the film out before an audience?

Absolutely – morale is very, very high at base camp. We have everything we need and it’s a matter of maths more than anything. We weren’t supposed to write a script in days, but we did. We couldn’t raise 10% in 2 weeks, but we did. We weren’t supposed to do any of these things, but we did. If we can get the publicity, we can make the film. If we can make it, we can distribute it, if we can do this, anyone and everyone can – we’re not powerless in a recession.

Finally, can you tell us about the film?

The idea came from thinking about how crappy it must have been that morning in September when Halifax was going under – some nut could have brought a gun into work and caused chaos. It’s got an amazing script, a very talented young director, an immensely passionate crew and a huge surge of positive support – so if it all works out, I hope we can all ask the question of ourselves about what else we can do to inspire and courage others. As soon as we have hit 50k, we’ll be releasing the timings for everything.

20
Feb

heart of the king in the hand of his father

“Chaos” is the word i’d use to describe the last week or so. I don’t remember a project that had so many technical problems. No sooner did we arrange a new credit card provider, than the damned server got so bad we actually had to move to a new one. Cue technical problem after technical problem, and now we’ve had to re-start from scratch as the MR.com domain is locked for a week when the press release is due on Tuesday. Nightmare, to say the least. One fire gets stamped out, and 5 more light up. It’s like Whack-A-Mole. I can’t wait for the press to rip into me.

Don’t get wrong, i wouldn’t change it for the world, but i could have chosen easier paths. Accountancy would have been safer. Boring, but far safer. A life in the home counties in a 9to5 City job, complete with Volvo Estate, dog gate, drug-dealing children and a resentful wife would have probably been smoother.

Now i think about it, that nausea is creeping up again. As they say, i think i just threw up in mouth a little bit.
But i’m pleased to report that the MR team are at their tree-swinging best, on top form. Morale is very high and we’re getting bullish. Every day i see these same people grow personally and professionally. Today they were critiquing each other’s CV’s, complete with the usual vicious ridicule and childlike vulnerability. It’s such a joy. Tommy is going to be teaching us all cage-fighting on set. We’re hiring a house to live in as the office HQ. This is the way things should be – business as a community effort to build prosperity. My delight and quasi-obsession with Persia is also reaching new heights, in tandem with her madness.

It’s frustrating when people talk about scripture like it’s some kind of fictional fantasy, although I understand why they say it. The vast majority of the time it’s simply that you have to *learn* how to read it, as it’s not just like a book or a newspaper. You can just pick up any religious writing and pick out verses as you please, or use it to justify anything you want. The aim is not entertainment, it is wisdom. Scripture is something that has to be *studied*, thought about, examined, debated and reflected upon. The way you read something can be paramount. You wouldn’t read gutter tabloids at a poetry evening and you wouldn’t look at porn the same way you traverse and quote scientific journals.

There are 2 ways to look at scripture – historically, and spiritually. The first is simply of a book with stories, and testimony of people that has been recorded as history. Our modern forensic history with devices recording it permanently is comparatively new, but before that we wrote what we saw and experienced down, were at pains to memorise every detail at length so it could preserved. Books like the Talmud, Bible and Qu’ran aren’t to be challenged as history, they *are* history – they are primary sources of recorded knowledge that our ascendants experienced, despite their limited technological understanding. Part of that knowledge and experience is emotional and spiritual truth.

But the real substance that makes up the “specialness” of scripture is when it is read spiritually. To read scripture properly takes time, discernment, wisdom, practice, attention, and mostly, help. You have to study it and think about it. You need it explained to you, and to work through it with other people. It’s about debating it, understanding it, reflecting on it, using your imagination to put yourself in the situations, and growing as a person by becoming wise from it. Understanding scripture takes a Jedi mind, and it’s not like picking up a celebrity magazine in a supermarket. It’s not for the faint-hearted, easily amused, simply-placated or those who like being comfortable and never challenged in their thinking and/or way of life. You need an active critical mind, intelligence and a burning passion to seek truth. If you want tat, stick to The Sun and put on some celeb gossip.

The thing I find so genuine about Christianity is that the Bible puts it all out there – flaws and everything. No human weakness is concealed; the bare truth is put on the table in all its nakedness no matter how bad it is. Personal mistakes, wrongdoing, sinfulness, difficulty, shame and everything you would want to cover up is just written down as is. You often find in other religions that the details are glossed over and heroic figures are PR-friendly because they are worshipped as saintly and perfect. Islam is extremely defensive over its prophets and Judaism will find a get-out clause to excuse wrongdoing. The PR is always in full effect. The Bible is plain about rights and wrongs, as well as achievements and faults.

It could have been covered up, but all the dirt was published right for everyone to see. It could have been the Disney sanitised version with a lovely PR spin, but it wasn’t. It could have been the nice stories, but most of them involve the dark side of human nature as much as they do the inspirational bits.

You can know man-made gods fairly easily in that they are permissive – they are created to allow us to do what we want and offer no real challenge to who we are. Authorities will create them to make others do their will (social order, religious dress code observance etc), and we will make them fit our own desires and prejudices. All of them are serving man somehow. The difference of real spirituality is that of a God who is separate, distinct, independent and sovereign – one who rules all, not just a selection with their unruly desires. The Abrahamic God certainly isn’t permissive.

I ask religious friends why the Old Testament (the Jewish Talmud) is so important as it just doesn’t seem relevant with all the Mosaic law and tales of destruction, and their answer is that all the situations we find ourselves in have happened before and the importance of context and prophecy fulfillment. The OT describes how the Father dealt with it then and the study of His relationship to the people of Israel as understanding of His character. What He says to them is what He says to all people individually and never changes because He is unchangeable and constant. Some of the characters in the OT defy classification and beggar belief.

Amongst them: Abraham (father of the Middle Eastern people), Moses (leader/saviour of Israel), Joshua (military invasion commander), Saul (murderous tyrant), David (King of Israel, founder of Jerusalem), Solomon (wise but fallen king) and more. Each had a separate and specific role and character that makes up a little part of each of us today. How they reacted and who they were is how we are tempted to behave or often feel like. The roads they walked down in extremes are often choices we face every day of our lives. Murder, treachery, adultery, war, violence, jealousy, greed, vanity, revenge, heroism, tragedy – all of these are standard stuff.

I love the Jewish people and the children of Israel with a childlike love. I know all too well what their enemies say, and what they have been guilty of, especially to Palestine. But you have to respect their incredible passion, resilience, ingenuity and political brilliance. No other people has endured what they have, has the history they do, or has changed the course of world events as they have. They’ve retain their individual culture despite all the attempts to destroy their identity and fight more fiercesomely than any other. I just feel a real resonance with the people, the land and their soul. I can’t explain why, i just do. I’ve always had Jewish friends and a total fascination/love of Israel.

I have a few favourites, but recently I’ve been studying David despite having ignored him before because of all the fantastic press. The father and greatest king of Israel, the Psalmist (a Psalm is a poem, basically), ancestor of Christ, almighty warrior and one of the most famous people in the history. There is so much to say about this man – the Jewish people hold him as their icon and believe the military Messiah is still to come from his lineage and he obviously famous for the incident with Goliath. An incredible warrior and military strategist, a powerful king and an incredible artist, musician and writer. Deeply loved by God and said to be of the same heart. David is revered, respected, wondered at, looked up to and held in legendary status for his incredible success and place in history. Having balls doesn’t go far enough for this guy, nether does following your heart.

But what i’ve found fascinating about David is that he is nothing of the sort when you look deeper into his character. The David we celebrate is very unlike the one found in the Bible.

Starting off, he’s fair-haired, which is unusual for the Middle East. He’s the youngest of all the sons, which traditionally meant he was the runt and disregarded, as the first born received all the inheritance. He is cast into the desert and irrelevant. But being a shepherd in Judah wasn’t quite what we perceive as being a shepherd to be nowadays with the cloak, staff and fluffy sheep; Judah was a wild land of insane animals and harsh landscape. Sheep and cattle were ravaged by lions, bears and vicious beasts, all in the middle of a desert. When the Bible talks about being a vulnerable lamb in the desert, it means business. If one of your flock went astray, it was most likely being ripped apart by lions, and your duty was to save that little guy from their jaws and keep the rest together. Rarely are there more frightening and rough conditions to be living under and fighting against.

Straight away you see something in that – in all of the leaders of scripture, all were built in the desert, the nothingness. That’s where the Father creates them, His chosen training ground. The ones who were chosen were the unusual, the unexpected, the forgotten. The alien stranger and least likely was the one picked from the others who expected it first. The greatest leaders were put into the greatest hardship to be trained before they were anointed. Before they were given their task and responsibility, they suffered. It was where David learnt to be an expert with the slingshot and developed his courage.

Time moves on after he is picked out, and the Philistines have surrounded the Israelites in massive numbers, just as the wild animals surrounded his flock in the desert with their baying jaws. For 6 weeks these vicious bastards lorded it up, scaring the crap out the Israelite army and taunting them about how they were going to kill them. That’s got to weaken morale.

David turns up, and he stands up to the thousands of his fellow soldiers, declaring victory. They laugh at him and put him down as he’s skinny and weak, and can’t even put on anyone’s armour. But he doesn’t just declare it to his countrymen, he goes out to meet the tallest, loudest, most vicious opponent they have and tells him to his face that he’s going to kill him that day in front of thousands of people. THAT is balls. He defies everyone, even his friends who are telling him to shut up. He doesn’t care, he just marches on out focused on beating him. It’s going to be easy to doubt yourself at that point when you’ve made a tit out of yourself and will never live it down if it goes wrong. His reaction is one of total contempt and disgust – “Who IS this uncircumcised Philistine?”. Total courage, defiance and balls. He declares victory before the battle has even begun whilst everyone else is scared silly.

But what’s interesting is what he declares. He says that despite being smaller, weaker, and only having a slingshot, the Father has decided the outcome of the fight already. Nothing to do with him, the armies, the weapons, the weather or anything else. Because of his extravagant display and vicious strike, the enemy crumbles and he returns to become commander. He’s not interested in anyone’s doubt, the size of the problem, the scary displays or the total lack of belief from the big tough guys standing beside him. It’s cold, calculated military precision and courageous leadership in the face of looking very stupid. Imagine how you’d be feeling if you saw some skinny runt going out to meet some 10ft bastard with just a bit of rope, declaring the victory in the face of everything seeming to be to the contrary. Then imagine how you’d feel once you saw him being right. Quite a life-changing day.

One hell of an inspirational leader who was banished to the desert in fear of the king because of how powerful he had become. Years went on, he became king and Israel went from strength to strength, with its peoples united, Jerusalem established and Judah a powerful nation under a great leader. Everything you read about him praises his heart, his cunning and how he was the greatest patriarch of the people, who loved him.

But despite all his heroic status, the inner state of David was incredibly different to what was projected on the outside. He was tortured, alone, impossibly emotional and driven by terrible darkness. Despite being a great courageous king, he was a broken man.

Many writers describe how they find it difficult to express the ineffable, ineffable sadness of the relationships of David. He loved his best friend with a love passing that of women, only for him to be killed savagely. He loved Jonathan’s sister Michal, and she loved him; only for her to come to despise his spirituality, and to cheat on him repetitively. And Saul’s sons, David’s brothers-in-law, the brothers of his deep deep best friend, joined their father the king in persecuting him in the wilderness years. David so loved his son Absalom, his very soul was consumed for him (grieving him beyond words when he was killed in a botched assassination attempt); but that son bitterly hated David, and coolly plotted to destroy him and his reputation. David loved Abigail and Ahinoam, but those fairy tale romances took a bitter blow when he fell for Bathsheba. He loved his parents, especially caring for their safe keeping in his wilderness years; only to be forsaken by them, and to be rejected by his brothers and sisters. He loved his son Solomon and gave very special attention to teach him the real spirit of the truth, taking time out from a hectic public life to do so; only for that beloved son to turn away in later life, to fast women, alcohol, materialism, and the perversions of idolatry.

A broken man betrayed at every corner, but the greatest leader the people had ever known. Not exactly what you’d expect with someone so great.

The famous failing of David was his genuinely horrendous campaign to use his power as king to steal away another man’s wife. Bathsheba was married to Uriah, but David got her pregnant, and covered it by deliberately sending Uriah into a battle situation where he arranged for him to be abandoned and killed. David then married the widow and took her for himself, officially making him not only an adulterer, but a murderer by proxy.

He was prone to fits of introspection; dramatic mood-swings, suffered massive clinical depression, sometimes appearing a real ’softie’ but hard as nails at others; easily getting carried away: be it with excessive emotional enthusiasm for bringing the ark back, in his harsh response to Hanun humbling his servants, his over-hasty and emotional decision to let Amnon go to Absalom’s feast when it was obvious what might well transpire, his anger ” flaring up” because of incompetency, or in his ridiculous softness for his treacherous son Absalom. He clearly had a very serious anger problem.

He had a heart cruelly torn so many ways and he hated with a violent hatred: ” I hate them, O Lord, that hate you…I hate them with perfect hatred…search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.” But the trauma of his life, the betrayals, jealousies and hatred of others, led him to the kind of bitterness which so often surfaces in the Psalms and is reflected in several historical incidents where he lacks the value of others’ lives which we would otherwise expect from a man who is claimed to have walked so closely with his God.

Some of the other less holy things he got up to were even more extraordinary:

He was barred from building the temple because of the amount of blood he had shed;
When told to slay 100 Philistines, he slays 200 for good measure;
His wife Michal was a big fan of having pagan images at home, despite the 2nd commandment;
He was arrogantly “displeased” with God because He had slain a man who was trying to assist his personal project;
He systematically made sure every male in Edom was murdered;
He seemed to revel and glory in how he destroyed his enemies (2 Sam. 22:41-43)
He ignored God repetitively, carrying on with his own ideas and dreams;
But if that’s not enough, consider some of these incidents:

He deceived Achish by pretending he was attacking Jewish towns, when in fact he was going out and attacking the Amalekite settlements, killing all men, women and children in them so that nobody was left alive to tell that it was him who had attacked them. Innocent people were slain by David’s sword for the ‘political’ reason that he had to keep Achish ‘in the dark’ about what he was really up to. And so in case a 5 year old say something incriminating later, David simply killed the little boy.

Once King, he decides to get back his ex-wife Michal, who was by now married to Phaltiel, who evidently loved her. Yet he takes her from Phaltiel, and we have the tragic image of the loving husband walking behind her weeping as she is led away from him.

When he defeated Moab, he made the captives lay down in three lines. He arbitrarily chose one line to keep alive, and killed the other two lines. This can’t be justified as some careful obedience to some Mosaic law. It reads like something out of the Holocaust, an arbitrary slaying of some in order to exercise the whim of one’s own power.

There have been so many character studies and historical analyses done of David that it would be pointless to go through them all, and of course, being such a prominent figure in Jewish culture he is immensely celebrated and known for being such a great leader and king. In Samuel and the book of Acts, he is described by the Father as “a man after mine own heart”. Quite an honour, but very, very challenging. Scripture teaches that God looks at the heart and examines it, not the appearance. It’s for that reason you can’t just say sorry for being bad and get forgiveness dished out on a plate – the Father forgives only the truly repentant, and because He knows our heart, he knows when we’re truly and honestly repentant or just saying it.

Obviously being a human man, it is foolish to say that the Father is like David, with murderous intent, infidelity and propensity to emotional overload. More likely to say that the son was born with the Father’s heart, which is what this article is about. There’s no doubt that it was certainly corrupted and jaded (just read the Psalms for his despair), but it was righteous underneath all. What i like about David is that he was completely ruled by his heart beyond anything else, and always followed it no matter what. He followed his heart so blindly that he almost wasn’t in control of himself. There is an honesty and purity in that.

I found that impossibly hard to reconcile. How could the Father continue to bless and empower someone who behaved so incredibly callously and immorally, even evilly? How could he continue to be so successful, chosen and supported when he deliberately disobeyed, wilfully sinned and defiantly sought the desires of his own heart when he was blatantly picked out and blessed as he was?

Then it hit me.

It’s the love of a father.

That might seem simple to you. It’s not to me. I don’t understand it at all. I think i understand how to be a father myself, but i absolutely don’t get what it must have been like to live like that and still be blessed, and not damned. I don’t get how he could be loved and supported after doing all that, and carrying on to be like that. I know i’d love my son that way, but i just can’t empathise with the son at all. I have no idea whatsoever. It’s totally alien to me, a complete unknown. I can’t fathom it; it escapes me. Surely his blessing and the favour on his life would have been taken from him just like Saul’s was? They were both totally disobedient but the apparent difference with David was in his heart. As i’m writing this i’m still trying to figure it out. What was it about David’s heart and motivation that kept his blessing when both Saul and Solomon’s was taken away?

He was disciplined and limited in so many ways, as the Father held him to account and indeed punished him, but he was never stripped of his anointing. He was given victory after victory in spite of his defiance and behaviour, presumably because his heart was in the right place. They say he sought God everywhere he went and everything he did. He wasn’t given mercy or pity for the bad things that had happened to him, or rewarded for his selfish intent. He went down in history because of grace, not for his own talents or repentance. It’s a total mystery to me.

The heart has reason that knows only itself, and justifies only itself in the pursuit of its desires. We may have only our eyes in the desert we know, but away from all the earthly creatures we do have the heart – and it’s that we have to be in agreement with above all else. Is there anything else? If i’m honest, the older i get, the more of a mystery the heart and soul become. They follow no logic, have no apparent direction, and impossibly, are not only the scourge of our dark hours, but also the source of our greatest moments. We have spent thousands of years trying to understand them only to be lost in circles and realising it is them that have led us to trying to understand them in the first place. We search to understand ourselves, when we are only meant to be ourselves.

Some wish they could surgically tear theirs out, just to avoid the pain they generate. It’s amazing how we can deliberately build concrete around them yet for them to still be so vulnerable, as if the concrete was transparent and ineffective from the start. We have no defence against love apart from denial, as separation only acts to make the poison worse. What a beautiful and archetypal trap. We can’t run from what makes us ourselves and what was there by design, no matter how clever our technology. Even the greatest scientists can’t stop themselves running around foolishly trying to impress a pretty girl, no matter how bitter they are. No amount of pain can stop us wanting to try again somewhere deep inside. No desperation can cut us off from feeling hope.

And who can say they regret following their heart? What shame can be found in the foolishness of embracing it? After all is said and done, is the alternative something to be proud of and fulfilled by? Can a life of evasion, risk-avoidance and face-saving really be an achievement to look back on with a smile? Would you rather be compelled and wrapped in the chaos of your human heart than the quiet numb mediocrity of a blank hospital pain sheet? I would rather have 1000 regrets, destroyed report card and muddy trashed face than a death bed complimented by the same shiny untouched armour i came into this world with. Scars aren’t just a mark of honour, rather a work of art.

And after all, it can all be crudely summarised into one thing – an honesty. An honesty to live truly and passionately. I don’t know if my report card will reflect that, but i’m hopeful, just like my heart.

“The heart of David, the people of Moses, the path of Joshua, the problems of Saul, the insight of Solomon and the task of Nehemiah.”

Mary

17
Feb

diamond roses for the beautiful persian

Valentines Day rocked, and the most spoiled this year was the most deserving, the simply gorgeous Persia Pirelli, queen of .. pretty much everything. She definitely suited the 12 diamond-studded red roses that she was marched down the hall to collect, Stalin-style. In my eyes, women rarely come more beautiful than this.

The ever-inventive Persian decided to use it as a prop for doing her infomercial QVC-style product review mock-up video on YouTube, which i’ve cheekily put on here too. And yes, i’ll get in the shit for doing it, but this one is for the boys to enjoy.

i’m not right, i’m not fine, i wanna be rain that tastes like wine, i wanna be seen, i wanna get clean, i wanna just … fall out of in-between…

17
Feb

a new wave of weaponising the network

Hot on the heels of organised crime using encrypted internet telephony (Skype, and/or VoIP) to communicate over the net in a way governments and police can’t intercept comes a new generation of virus: “Downadup”. This one is very different and marks a new generation of potentially malicious technology. But it’s also a fascinating study in the massive democratising power of the Internet and demonstrates the ability of the people to weaponise the mundane in a more dramatic way than if they were to build an army of soldiers with guns. Governments are no longer safe.

“Downadup” is an example of a nuisance that has become a real threat – it is the basic building block of what is known as a “botnet”, or a network of robots. Once it compromises a computer, it turns it into a slave to do its master’s bidding. Put lots of computers together so they work together to do the same thing across a network (e.g. a big public one, like the Internet), and you have an army of robot machines. You can use them to solve big maths problems via the collective “power of the network” (e.g. SETI@Home project), or you can get them all to slam the same website and force it down. Or start infecting even more machines. It’s sheer viral force at work.

Botnets aren’t new, and generally they can be stopped with anti-virus software, Microsoft patches and by identifying suspect network activity. If they “dial home” you can easily pick up the command HQ and if they have a specific target, it’s easy to kill off and protect it. Many of them are just a nuisance and have no real tangible motive for their existence that makes them practical for doing any real harm.

Enter “Downadup”.

What’s different about this system is the way it communicates with its master. The worm itself has an encrypted core with a very sophisticated algorithm that doesn’t have one address for its master keyed in. Based on information from well known websites like Google, the algorithm generates literally unlimited amounts of random potential web addresses it could connect to – most of which don’t actually exist. But it’ll try connecting to them anyway, just in case. When you have a home HQ keyed into the code, it’s easy to pick up the command center and shut it down. But with this new generation, it survives alone and switches the intelligence to its owner, not the other way around. It polarises the vulnerability.

So all the master has to do is to spontaneously register a domain (.com etc) that day anywhere in the world, and all the robots will find it like a swarm. It can only be for a day, and as soon as its shut down, the master can open up a new HQ. They can be opened up as fast as they are shut down. The bots will continually generate new addresses and keep trying them forever. The master can hide and seek as much as they like to cover their tracks, as their army is resilient.

Oh, and when it connects to HQ, it can auto-update itself, just like Windows Update does to protect you from it. So what we’re looking at is software that can evolve – the same collective computing power that can steal/crack passwords, smash down websites, send spam, hide files and more. Microsoft has put out a $250,000 criminal reward, and F-Secure estimates that a few days ago, 38,277 computer networks were infected.

And through it we begin to see the true power of the Internet unveiled through the cat-and-mouse game – China can’t lock out the Onion/Tor/Peekaboo networks, rightsholders can’t eclipse thousands of developers circumventing DRM and P2P networks, and the person who finds a way to quietly marshall the billions of PCs we work on is very dangerous indeed. Watch as the next version evolves against to counter the DNS system and connections to its self-generated domains deliberately registered by the authorities.

I just love the attitude of the Pirate Bay founders, who are in court with the movie studios and record labels:

What are they going to do about it? They have already failed to take down the site once. Let them fail again.”

13
Feb

midgar: making terminate dream sequence

Rob Fisher’s Midgar are absolutely storming it at the moment – it’s the love of a good woman. They are becoming the living embodiment of everything that went into the Rockstar 2.0 Project and i’m immensely proud of them. The latest venture they’ve undertaken is to go one louder and build a 2-room recording studio at Andy’s place in Woking that is turning out some amazing-sounding material.

They’ve even made a documentary explaining how they are doing it which is fascinating. Put together some mics, Cubase 4 and the talents of Rob as a trained sound engineer and producer, and you start to see why being able to sell directly to fans is very threatening to record labels.

At the end (towards 12mins 30secs or so), Andy starts talking about being the band asked to do the title track for “Michael’s Resignation”.

Listen to the full-recorded track here (6.22MB MP3)
Midgar – “Terminate Dream Sequence”

13
Feb

freedom to be offended on valentines day

It’s been a long week already, and even rougher than the last. I’m close to furious. Furious with bad government and the degenerating mess that is Britain. I normally can’t stand the types of people who go on and on about “this country going to the dogs” as it’s just bigoted waffle about institutions fading in the face of globalisation, but i’m really sick of seeing bad decision after bad decision, and mostly, the people being completely ignored and taken for granted. Bad leadership, bad government.

I love Valentines though, being an incurable romantic. As is traditional, mine hasn’t exactly gone as planned. After making a lot of arrangements in the background (including with her best mate), I ordered a big fat bouquet of 12 red roses for someone i thought was realty different and special, but then watched in disbelief as she randomly stopped speaking to me for a week before letting on she was in a relationship. Whatever the reasons behind it, and whether it was real or some kind of game, anyone who knows me knows that kind of thing turns my stomach. I had to call the hotel they were going to and specifically ask they did not fall into that person’s hands and be given anonymously as a random act of kindness to someone staying there alone that day instead.

Nevertheless, such a thing cannot go to waste, and i decided to send them to someone more deserving that was a better choice and might be more appreciative: the gorgeous Persia Pirelli, who has decided she is going to lay in them and take photographs of them in her hair. I couldn’t believe someone as unbelievably beautiful and attractive as her is planning to spend her day in the library hiding away. No more. I was the first man to give that girl roses, and i’m very, very happy about it.

There was a fairly long list in the end, as i’m lucky enough to have atrociously flirtatious relationships with lots of my female friends that i could easily settle down with just because they’re such great people. I could have sent them to all of them. Every girl should have roses on Valentines, with no exception. I’m gutted that i couldn’t wire out a dozen packages, but at 50 quid a pop it’s not amazingly practical.

I couldn’t believe the cynicism of a lot of my male friends either, most of whom think the 14th is massively overrated and commercialised so aren’t even bothering to make dinner with a candle or do something as simple as give their chick a flower (they’re all convinced making an effort on Valentines costs a fortune). It’s one day in the year when we take time out of our busy everyday lives to remember and commemorate romance and love, just for the sake of it. All of these with the exception of Rob Fisher of course, who has planned the most extravagant treatment of Gemma she’s ever seen just because he’s so madly in love with her. I still retain the record for the most amazing Valentines ever of course. My title remains intact for time being.

Every day i’m hearing more and more people saying they’ve been made redundant, and others saying they have no money. Overdraft letters are being ignored, phones are being cut off and the frustration is coming out.

Without wanting to sound dramatic, Gordon Brown really is wrecking this country (just wait for the predictable election angle – “you don’t change hands during a crisis!”). He’s been wrecking it for a long time. But the real failure is with the total cowardice and spinelessness of our leadership. The last week has been a very good example of what happens when you have a bad government not knowing where it’s going or what it’s doing. A government without values, vision or any kind of idea who and what Britain is. In the Qu’ran, Mohammed prophesises that the Antichrist will only have one eye. I’m beginning to believe him.

I was furious when i saw yet another database is being constructed – this one to monitor travel movements with the Disney-esque title of “E-Borders”. Another database that can be linked to every other database to be cross-referenced, and mined for information to fight “the terrorists”. Databases are cheaper than policing of course, and they make life more convenient for the police. Only one problem – it comes at the expense of the people. It is just wrong. Privacy and human rights have very little to do with it anymore, it’s just wrong. Police work is challenging, and it’s meant to be. Governments are servants of the people funded by the people, not the guardians or overseers of it. They are stewards who are there to prosper the people, not monitor them. We cannot legislate for the minority and justify anything and everything in the name of “security”. Our rights *are* our security.

The Lords bring out a report saying CCTV is a threat to privacy, and everyone is missing the point about Orwell – *we already are* in a police state – we just have a lame government. Wait until a motivated and more authoritarian one comes along as they’ll have all the tools they need already set up for them and waiting. It’s now apparently illegal to photograph a policeman. Where the fuck did that come from? Jailing parenting through “parenting orders”? Excuse me? Why is there not a procedure for impeaching and removing a political leadership like there is in a bank? How many times do we need to work out authoritarianism doesn’t work before we get out of denial and face up to it?

We might think we “need” to do it, but after all the bullshit talk, it’s just wrong. The wrong values, the wrong direction, the wrong approach, and the wrong vision.

What’s really got my goat though is the issue of Geert Wilders being denied entry to the UK. Again, everyone misses the point – if he did it just for publicity, our politicians couldn’t spot such an obvious political play and fell directly into the trap. What they were doing with the Briton in Guantanamo by giving into the Americans was buying time so they could get him out before pissing our allies off by exposing the torture later on down the line, but in this Islamophobia case it was simply cowardice and/or stupidity. If you are a professional politician, then missing that play is a schoolboy error. A bit like funding an economy on loans and credit cards to make the people feel prosperous.

I’m really sick of this.

Firstly, if you haven’t seen the film “Fitna”, watch it here:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=216_1207467783

Wow. How controversial. 17 minutes of terrorism footage interspersed with verses from the Qu’ran and the Hadith. A guy makes a film about Islamists inciting each other to kill infidels, and get accused of inciting racial hatred. Irony, anyone? Islamist values include the denial of freedom of speech, so here we are agreeing with them and maintain a common value that we shouldn’t have in common or share with them.

The laws of incitement in themselves are utterly absurd. Freedom of speech is an absolute, not a negotiable term despite Miliband’s pathetic remark that “shouting ‘fire’ in a theatre is not freedom of speech”. We either have it, or we don’t. There are no limits to it. Forget the Oxbridge intellectualita’s circular waffle. We are all personally responsible for ourselves. If someone tells you to do something or stirs you up to do it, it is your choice and responsibility if you act on it, just as was established in Nuremberg for the Nazi camp guards. Words are words, and talk is talk. Actions are something different entirely, and what the law needs to cover. Freedom of speech is an inalienable right of all human beings and includes the right to be offensive, not just the right to be offended.

The same is true of Holocaust denial – how can you imprison someone for what they think or tell others? It’s up to all of us to make up our own minds, and if you don’t, then you need suffer the consequences for not bothering – especially if you have not taken the support offered to you to help you do that in the first place.
So what should be saying and doing?

There was an incredible interviewee on Channel 4 news tonight that i have been desperately searching for the name of – he was in the target group of people likely to be offended by Geert’s film, but was deeply angry with the government for not allowing him in. Why? Because it denied *him* the right to debate in opposition to the viewpoint.

What a mindset.

I remember asking the guys at Channel 4 why they wouldn’t allow the BNP on programs so they could be debated, and their response was because hate groups used the channel as a “platform” to promote themselves in a “as seen on Channel 4” kind of way and just being astonished at the cowardly get-out clause. When people have these views, we get up and debate them for the nonsense they are. Once we’ve trashed them, we move on. You bring them into the limelight to be examined, and ridicule them. The Jewish people have been lampooning their enemies for generations.

Our attitude needs to be one of warning, not fear. Geert, by all means come over, but beware – this is a land of *true* freedom of speech, which means you should expect that you are going to face a lot of shit. If people don’t like what you have to say, you’re going to get debated. Bring it on, and make sure you’ve got your arguments down or you’re going to get verbally and mentally wrecked by the people of this country as anyone has a say. This is Britain, and we don’t stomach weirdos or radicals who don’t make sense or have silly agendas. We’re not scared of extremists, if that’s what you are – in fact, we’ll give you your own chair on the stage, if you’ve got the balls to debate us. If you want freedom of speech, you’ve got it. Prepare yourself. We’re a tough crowd and we speak our minds here. We’re not into being told how to talk or think.

We need to stop trying to appease people. If it’s not being scared of Islamist reaction, the Sun’s headlines tomorrow morning or how we will be misinterpreted by history, it’s something else. It’s all so defensive and reactive, when we need to be being proactive and pick up the ball. We need our values clearer, and a bolder vision. We need to be going somewhere, and doing the right thing – not just the right thing politically, but the *right thing*. Where’s the bulldog in British politics and leadership? This is the 5th largest economy in the world and a permanent member of the security council that runs the largest financial centre in the world and gave it Shakespeare and railways. We need to stop fucking around and acting like kids cowering in the schoolyard.

I’m coming to believe it may find its root in identity. Unity comes from identity, as does community. Identity is made from character, values, belonging, choices, vision and more, and people have been saying for years now that our nation’s has been critically eroded. We extrapolate what it means to be British from old stereotypes of the Empire and 50s movies when we have a new multicultural community based on the services industry and intellectual property. Our government is there to define and fortify who and what we are, not be the one that operates the smoke machine.

Yeah, i’m angry and ranting, i know.

Our vision should be that we are the most advanced culture in the world – we may be small, but we pack the most concentrated and powerful punch. A country with the most advanced energy systems, most ethical foreign policy, most educated workforce, most effective justice/prison system, profoundly digitised economy, most open and free press, and massively powerful influence as the world’s most advanced nation. Right now we’re the little brother of America not sure if we’re going to join the EU and trying to keep hold of our tax haven islands off the coasts of obscure tropical islands.

Bad leadership creates bad government that creates bad economies, and impoverished, crushed peoples. Peoples who are so apathetic and clueless that they don’t do anything when it’s made illegal to protest outside their decision-making chambers or when their country is almost bankrupted from desperate attempts to stop banks imploding. Someone needs to stand up and say that banks are not our friends – we shouldn’t be dependent on them and absolutely must not build business cultures that need credit for sheer survival. Banks are *not* the friends of the people, they are there to extort via the practice of usury and exchange their electronic vapour of numbers for physical wealth, e.g. property. They won’t think twice about demanding your debts be paid back in full, but urgently want more time for theirs.

We need to get out of the idea of naive victim sympathy for those who have absolutely none for us. We make the rules: if they’re about to collapse, take them right to the very edge, let them collapse, then wrench them by the balls for what you want when they’ll give you whatever you want – that’s simple business. If you want government help, you’re going to give up almost all the farm for it, and most of all, you’re going to do what you’re told. That means firing the whole management structure, signing off most of your balance sheet to the people, and absolutely no bonuses or share-incentives. If you don’t like that, then you may prefer it to the alternative – being strung up and thrown in jail. Sound extreme? They do it every single day to every one of us. As if any banker ever gave a damn for your welfare.

Whilst we’re there, we could go for the BBC – another spineless and cowardly house of appeasement. I’m going to sound totally ridiculous here but on my very first day in the job i’d demand resumes and commissioning records from everyone in the comms teams, as well as cancelling every single bullshit jon and consultancy agreement. Line up another team secretly, then fire the whole lot, root and branch, in a single day. Then order them all to start doing what they were meant to do and are expected to as the fear of God would have set in. Every cancerous influence of John Birt (e.g. internet “customers”, departments “competing” with each other etc) driven out so it was back to the centre of excellence it was designed to be. This is the BBC, the world’s greatest broadcaster, so fucking start acting like it. We don’t cave to newspapers or nosy governments, we’re the most powerful standard-setter in the UK funded by the people to be their voice. You bow to us. Simple as that.

I could go on but i’ll just get angrier. I worry that i sound authoritarian, which is ironic. Stupid bureaucratic local councils, patronising politicians, prejudiced negative newspapers, trashy television programmes, apathetic teachers, authoritarian idiots and more. It all stinks. Give me someone who is tough with what they believe and honest when they get it wrong every day. I don’t want politicians who are semi-religious figures, i want people who can get the job done and deliver without the BS. People who have a vision to execute on and want a place in history in exchange for delivering it.

07
Feb

bill gates on how we can change the world

It’s not fashionable to say it, but i’ve always been a huge fan of Bill Gates. He’s copped a whole world of flack for his aggressive business tactics and product development strategy, but if you look back on his record he’s always been absolutely focused ruthlessly on his goals and very rarely interjected on any other subjects that could merit controversy (e.g. politics, religion etc). I believe there is a reason so much money has been unnaturally allowed to collect in the pockets of one person, and its because of the work he’s now doing as a philanthropist.

Of course, it’s easy to be cynically speculate and say its because he’s got everything he could ever need, or wants to preserve a egotistical legacy. But when you actually study the guy, he just doesn’t fit that stereotype at all. You can say what you want, but the truth is that his accounts tell the story – billions invested in Africa and a foundation with an incredible mantra of all lives having equal value. At TED, he outlines his 2 big questions.

What do you notice? He’s a very positive guy – an optimist. He’s excited and enthused. He sees the world as an application that needs to be debugged and focuses on solving the problems. Yes, it’s easy to be optimistic when you have that kind of money, but i’ll bet everything i have that he was an optimistic *before* Windows 3.1 was released in 1990.

There’s also an interesting follow-up interview he does with Chris Andersen (editor of Wired magazine) where he addresses cynics and outlines some very interesting facts about population growth.






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