Lack of Leadership on board the Arse

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It’s been a while since I wrote about my beloved Arsenal. I guess I find it can be a bit more difficult because there are so many different gooner voices out there in blogland, let alone the blogosphere and spblogace, that I wonder if I’m adding anything of interest to what’s already there. But after a trying few weeks I’m going to add my thoughts to some things that have already been written. Hopefully my voice adds something to the conversation!

Le Prof 

(picture by Dan Leydon)

I have read quite a few different reactions to Arsene over the last number of years and they seem to ebb and flow with regard to ‘he knows what he’s doing’ to ‘what the hell is he doing?’  I’ve always been a massive fan and supporter of his ideology and I still am. When arguments used to happen in pubs, I was standing up for the need to build the stadium and an acknowledgment that there might be a few years without a league trophy (wasn’t expecting the current trophy drought!) and the need to go for youth. Arguments against this philosophy were never personal attacks like these days on the beautiful magic interweb. What Wenger did in the first years of the stadium was nothing short of miraculous. I don’t think the fans were ever told the whole truth about monies being available to the manager but I accepted that belt tightening was a necessity due to our circumstance. However, what was apparent was the ever-increasing competition for the top 4 places. That Wenger has kept us there is proof of his ability as a manager and a coach. Yes there have been seasons with luck and seasons where without a certain 30 goal scoring thing we wouldn’t be anywhere but that is part and parcel of football. The point is that it happened, nothing you can do now except reminisce. I’m not like others in that I don’t get strung up about when Wenger talks about 4^th place being like a trophy. Yes an actual trophy would be nice after such a drought, but in todays football world, putting the effort in to winning a cup like the League Cup and/or the FA cup can cost you League points. I look at Liverpool – yes the club that everyone likes to compare us to and if you ask Liverpool fans about blah blah blah, they say they wished blah blah blah. You’ve heard it all. My point is regarding their struggle post Benitez. Liverpool were like us. They were one of the teams pre season who was going to finish in the top 4. Then they didn’t. And look at their struggles since. Look at the money they have spent. Yes they’ve bought quite a bit of mediocrity but it’s a very, very tough journey back to the promised land of the top 4 and the margins for error are getting slimmer and slimmer every season. Arsenal this season are showing slight signs of slippage and despite Arsene’s previous miracles, there is just something missing from the club today that I think is the cause of this slippage.

What I feel Arsenal currently lack is leadership at every point in the club. We have an owner who is silent. We have a CEO who says the right things to the right people at the right times. We have a manager whom I don’t think is even questioned. Now I’m not asking for ownership that interferes in the day-to-day managers job – that’s not Arsenal. The leadership I feel we’re missing at the top are the custodians. People like Danny Fizsman and David Dein, who while not questioning the manager, would (and I certainly feel this) subtly have asked questions about players, teams and matches. Even if it were to subtly encourage or motivate Arsene to think a little differently. What they cared about was Arsenal. Well in Dein’s case, he did up to about 2007 when he sold his shares to Usmanov. I don’t buy into his reasoning for selling and if he truly cared about the club he’d clip his son around the ear when it comes to being an agent for some of our past players. We currently have an owner who cares about a club that will make him money. He is happy to keep things going the way things currently go as it keeps our share price high and ultimately I feel that is his sole goal having seen and heard nothing to inspire me or make me think otherwise. I remember the summer of 2001 where after a few mediocre seasons, Wenger whipped out the cheque book and brought players like Van Bronkhorst, Sol, Richard Wright and Jeffers to the club. Now some signings were inspired, some great squad additions and others didn’t work out. What happened after the additions?  My own personal thoughts are that Wenger was told from above that the money was there, tell us who to sign to make us title challengers again and let us worry about the money for now. There was mutual understanding between everyone and Wenger trusted them like they trusted him. Currently Wenger has to worry about balancing the books and the team and I worry he does it alone. I look at the run down in the fantastic blog from The Swiss Ramble where he lays it out brilliantly and plainly how Arsenal’s business plan means they really do need to sell before they can buy. No one on the board currently is an Arsenal man besides the honorary PHW who hasn’t much influence anymore. It’s very eerily silent.

The other lack of leadership issue I have has been the choice of captains. Since Vieira left I don’t think Arsenal have had a proper captain with the exception of a certain scoring thing last season. Yes I know the way he left, but last season he had the players doing things together, he knew the traditions of Arsenal and on the pitch he was a talker and an action man. Wenger has never been much of a ranter or a hairdryer style manager. He inherited Adams who knew the right things to say and gave 100% He gave the captaincy to Vieira. These were players who didn’t know the meaning of giving up, of not contesting every 50/50, but also knowing what to say and when to say it. Henry’s shadow was too great when he inherited the captaincy. Look at the freedom the team played with after his departure. Gallas? Need I say anything more than ‘center circle’? While Fabregas was one of the greatest players I ever got to watch, he was no captain. Vermaelen this season seems to be burdened by it. He doesn’t seem to be the player of old who made less mistakes but his slightly reckless mistakes were made up by the fact he scored goals. Arteta would have been the best choice for captain but the fact he’s not means he’s not going to try and step on Vermaelen’s toes. While Wenger doesn’t hold the idea of captaincy in the highest of regard and prefers his leaders to be in the dressing room and all over the pitch, there’s something that choosing the right captain can bring. Vieira calmed his insane temperament when he inherited the responsibility of captain. He was a leader on the pitch that if the team was down he inspired others to rise with him. After Vieira left we still had what Wenger termed ‘leaders’ on the pitch, but they didn’t do much without a proper captain and leader. There’s just something that can inspire you when looking to the man wearing the armband when you need inspiration. If you look and see an Adams or a Vieira with the look of anger in their eyes after conceding, or hearing them shout at you having done something silly – you awaken to the challenge. Right now while Arteta is respected and seen as a captain, the players will look at Vermaelen and see little to be inspired about.

So in summation – my belief is that Wenger doesn’t have leadership around him in the club and this is what is holding Arsenal back. He has yes men above him and players that respect the pants off him. I think what Wenger and Arsenal need more than ever right now, is a true captain major to run the ship and a true captain to rally the troops on the pitch. A club is made up of many elements all gently pushing, persuading, sometimes fighting, but all pushing in the same direction. Arsenal currently has a man trying to steer somewhere he knows he wants to go, but has no leadership to help him get there. I think Wenger is still the man to lead our club, but he needs his leadership around him in the supporting roles. I think he misses the subtle inputs of others who share his same goal: for Arsenal to win trophies.

Musical Mutterings

Bit of a quieter musical muttering this week. More of a musical mumble cough *tumbleweed* blog! My music listening has not stopped, fear not dear reader, but I have no new albums to review this week. My musical choices were inspired by what would get my legs pumping hardest on my new bicycle! Disc 2 of Garage Inc. was a definite leg mover! My top 5 listenings for the last week were:

Idlewild

Metallica

Queens of the Stone Age

Incubus

Green Day

I am a big fan of Idlewild and I am disappointed they never made it as big as they should have. They’ve released some sublime musical offerings over their career (currently on hiatus) yet never managed to break into the upper echelons of the musical halls. They’ve had their own cult following which thankfully, was big enough to keep them together for over a decade. Their last album, ‘Post Electric Blues’, was a brilliant album and it was funded solely by fans (like me) paying in advance of its making to finance the recording! You see music industry? People are willing to pay for music. Good music. And pay more than you charge for shit. Take note.

On another muttering note, I saw an amazing bit of news from Queens of the Stone Age the other day. Not only are they back recording a new album, but Dave Grohl is back on drums! For those in the not know - check out the album Songs for the Deaf from 2002 - masterpiece. He has always said Josh Homme is the only man who can persuade him to sit behind the kit. I was lucky enough to see Grohl from afar behind the kit when I saw QotSA play in 2001 and 2002 at a festival, but even more lucky to get a ticket to Them Crooked Vultures in Hammersmith Apollo in 2010. I was right up front and watching Grohl bash that kit was an amazing experience. Getting close to the legend that is John Paul Jones was also nice! This week I shall be getting my hands on two new albums so more to musically mutter about next week. Hopefully I shall have a few of the other projects I’m writing about nearer to completion also. Waiting for a book to come into my library for one project and editing two more! Been a bit quiet here on the old blog this last week but that should change soon!

Musical Mutterings

So as promised last week, this week begins with a review of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s (GY!BE) Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! I’ve spent the week listening to it and I have to say I love it. For a band in such a particular genre as ‘post-rock’ to have a 10-year hiatus between albums and to come back with this – it shows their immense musical qualities. The album starts off with a monstrous beast of a song, ‘Mladic’. Twenty minutes of awesome. Starting with some spoken words, leading into a rather slow, violinic (©) intro, by 1:15 the song introduces its first distorted guitar sounds and builds it into the immense opening. At 3:30 the steam begins to gather at the chimney of the pressure cooker. For the next three minutes, there are subtle hints as to what is to come – at 6:42 there are a few squeals from distorted guitars that they are ready to go. At 7:42, you would be forgiven for thinking that the real rock is kicking off, but GY!BE shift the intro of the song beautifully: this is merely the building process to the real kick off of the song at 8:16.

Immense.

The deconstruct into distortion, then guitars, then more distortion is just as good. It’s what GY!BE reformed to do.  ‘Their Helicopters’ Sing’ is a six-minute ear and mind cleanser. It awakens you from the trance of the previous twenty minutes by gently bringing you back to earth with a soft two-minute electronic intro. Then on 2:12 we have some bagpipes to awaken the mind! It’s a cacophony of noise but that is not to be derogatory about the song. The album is a punishing one for different reasons and this is just going for a shorter blast at different musical senses. Sandwiched in between the two beasts of the album, it’s a brave but an expectedly brave song sandwich from GY!BE.

We drop to near silence for the intro of ‘We Drift Like Worried Fire’ and within the first minute we have the first taste of some finger picking and more violinic (©) musings. At 2:57 we have a quite sudden change to defined guitar finger picking and the building process begins again. 3:58 brings in the drums as the song begins to simmer under the surface and it boils over at the six-minute mark. It changes tack at the mid point and chills out for a while with some nice violin work. But fear not! By 14:53 we are truly on the crest of a crescendo of guitars again! It chugs along beautifully until three minutes from the end of the song where it becomes quiet rather suddenly luring you into a false sense of peace. It comes back as quickly as it faded. The song is another twenty-minute mammoth but it hooks you from first to last.

The last song ‘Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable‘ is another electronic, static noise track. Again – that’s not to be disparaging. It’s challenging your senses to adjust to the ultimate changes of the album: the songs themselves rather than just the changes within the songs. The reason these guys are so good is evident in this album. I believe they provide the ‘building rock’ © for ‘post-rock’ and this ability is what makes these guys genii at their craft.

Just as an aside incase there’s any interest, other ‘post-rock’ artists that I enjoy would be Explosions in the Sky, God Is An Astronaut and 65daysofstatic. But GY!BE are the gods of the genre in my humble opinion.

Another new album acquired this week was Apocryphon from The Sword. I came across these guys in 2009 when they supported Metallica on their tour of the UK and they impressed me. They’ve a really distinct sound and made me think they were a heavier version of Fu Manchu – I doubt anyone else will think that! The album itself is good. I have given it a few listens on my hifi and I may have zoned out for a few songs but the ones I heard – I liked! That’s the difference between a metal album and post-rock – I find myself actually sitting down and listening to a post-rock album whereas I can do other stuff and merely hear a metal album. So far my standout track is the opener ‘The Veil of Isis’ but I also include ‘Cloak of Feathers’, ‘Arcane Montane’ and ‘Aporcyphon’ in my list of songs to check out. As happened with their previous two albums, you can find gems buried deep. ‘The Black River’ was buried at number nine on Gods of the Earth and so I found ‘Apocryphon’ buried at number 10! Have to say though – not one song made me want to skip forward so that’s always a good sign! It’s an album I’d define as groovy stoner metal so those seeking a thrash metal Sword album might be a little disappointed.

In closing, with thanks to last.fm as always, my top 5 listens for the last week were:

The Sword

Rammstein

Mozart

Godspeed You! Black Emporer

Wolfmother

Go Small Part 2 - A supranational cooperative?

Since my last ramble about going small, there have been quite a few regions beginning to demand independence from the larger state entities! Did they secretly read my blog?! Viewing statistics would suggest ‘NO’ but I have a sneaky suspicion the answer is definitely …..no!

My last argument centered around the need to downsize in the hope that smaller entities would prove more difficult for corporations to buy, that there would be more interest in the politics of your area. This blog post touches on the interesting rumblings emanating from areas like Venice and the Basque Region. I know there are also happenings in Catalonia, Scotland and Wallonia, but for the purpose of this blog I’ll attempt to be concise with my argument. I’ll try to argue for the notion of Venetian independence using the concept of the Basque Region cooperative.

One of my previous points arose from my questioning of central government. I basically asked if we downsized, would that be beneficial to somewhere like Cork? Cork it was announced a while back, has seemingly struck oil; well a corporation has and thanks to deals made in the 1980’s the people will see absolutely no benefit from this. The Dublin government gets nothing except the corporation rate of tax on the profits. Yipee. With the recent abolition of and merging of lots of town councils, the Irish government is going to be even more centralised. There are parts I agree with in this – for example the planning process for developments was so corrupt it had to be taken away from the local councils. But a lot of the councils are now seemingly going to be money collection agencies for the government in relation to the forthcoming property tax. The central government gets to wipe its hands of this dirty business. How convenient. But I digress. My main argument here is that the national resources being utilised by the government are our police force and they’re being used against the people. The corporations by having centralised laws can use those laws to their benefit over both small and large landmasses. What government in one area feels is necessary may not what the locality wants.

Lets look to Europe and assess some examples both of regions who are actively seeking independence from the Nation State or who have unique regional identity and whose independence movements are not yet as pronounced as others. I’ll propose logical reasons as to why I feel going small could work.

The nation state as we know is only something of a recent political concoction. The Peace of Westphalia brought together lots of regions within a defined state border mainly for protection. Europe had just gone through two wars, both ending in 1648 with this Peace. Regions within Europe had been decimated by the Thirty Years War so these small regions sought sanctuary within the borders of a more powerful entity. This entity is what we call the Nation State. I believe that the nation state today has become too powerful, too corrupt and controlled by a minority that dictate to the majority what system we should use to live our lives and what economic situation we have to live in. The variance between states is too great and this variance is what causes people to risk their lives to escape one nation state for another. I do believe however, in an organisation like the EU. Yes it has its faults, but I think a supranational entity like that, run for the benefit of all the EU’s citizens is a way forward. The EU already has a regions policy. It promotes the cultural differences, the positives and the peoples of Europe’s regions. It has a webpage showing just some of the ongoing projects within the different regions and how they are benefiting from being within the EU. I think the world is too small today and wants to move too quickly to merit a move to nothing but totally independent regions. But much like the way the state system we have has ceded certain powers to the EU, for example in terms of trade negotiations, I believe regions could do the same. The EU could become a kind of giant cooperative movement. They have the basic formation of one in place already. Indeed “for one week every year European regions are in the spotlight. It’s called Open Days, lasts a week, and is dedicated to all issues regional and local. From every corner of the continent, thousands of local leaders and administrators come to Brussels to talk directly to EU officials and lawmakers. It is a time of networking, exchanging ideas and passing on information. It is also about celebrating the best of what Europe can produce. An array of local products – foods, wines [and] regional specialities.”  Could this be a way forward with our politics? The answer in my opinion is ‘yes’ and I look to the example of a current cooperative.

We have extremely sad stories coming from the nation state of Spain and most of us have heard about the economic difficulties Spain is facing, Well, despite these extreme difficulties there are success stories and they emerge from communities working together. While Mondragon is a corporation, it is one of the responsible and ethical ones. For “despite its international presence, Mondragon's co-operative structure has kept most of its jobs and production in Spain. It has 35,000 employees in the Spanish Basque Country, 35,000 elsewhere in Spain and about 13,500 abroad.” (France 24 article) I believe cooperatives are the way forward, both socially and financially. They bring communities together and ensure that the power base remains within the cooperative. There are no gigantic wages for someone sitting at the top while the people at the bottom work their balls off for a pittance. Profits are shared and communities worldwide benefit. Even when tough decisions have to be made, look at their methods:

“Most of its workers are partners in the firm, voting to elect the bosses and determine sensitive decisions. In May, for example, workers of its flagship electronics brand Fagor agreed between them to cut their salaries by 7.5 percent and to move workers to different locations.” People do realise that tough decisions need to be made to save business and protect industry. We often hear from governments that people ‘don’t realise that cuts are necessary’ etc. The big one for me at the moment is the bank debt. I wrote about bank reform previously and my belief that personal banks should be run more like Credit Unions (well maybe not Irish credit unions) but a banking cooperative that ensures responsible lending and not only promotes but rewards saving. Local money is used to run them, which again benefits the communities. I spoke last time about calculating interest rates based on the actual need of the loan. The aim of this is to go about reducing exposure to bad debts as people may well be put off unnecessary spending and bad spending practice if the interest for their proposed spending is too high. Easy credit leads to boom and bust cycles. Reducing the size of the banks brings them back to serve the localities they exist within.

Another regional example I’ll touch on is Venice. Venice was a Republic for around one thousand years before the Napoleonic Wars caused its cessation. What was a cause of its end? A powerful Nation State. Now you have the people arguing about things that are important: economics. Venetians argue about the tax they pay Rome and how they have a 20 billion deficit between that which they pay and that which they receive. It’s an understandable complaint when times are tough. What I am attempting to show here is that a lot of our security concerns now are economic. I would argue that Europe is safe from marauding hordes like the Mongols, that future independent regions like Venice are safe from empires such as the Hapsburg Empire that engulfed it as ‘territory’ after Napoleon’s France was defeated. I would argue it’s a safe time to return to regional entities.

I believe that using a supranational organisation like the EU could be the answer to future regional security. Now I realise that while I’m pointing out my belief in downsizing, I’m also arguing for a supranational body like the EU to operate as a gigantic cooperative! My argument for that is rational. I would still have bodies like the European Parliament, who do far more good than they are given credit for, to ensure there is no democratic deficit within this organisation. But firstly, by introducing a more cooperative corporation whereby people see the benefit of voting for bosses, for pay increases and decreases, for benefits – that may encourage people to vote in larger numbers for their representatives in the supranational cooperative that would be my vision of the EU. I believe that the policies of the EU could be carried forward with ease. Freedom of travel, freedom to work where one wishes. I believe these traits are transferrable to any future European Union. I think removing the hormonal Nation State from politics removes one of the scourges of humanity: nationalism. Downsizing society and its organs would not lead to a lessoning of ‘internationalism’. By having the EU promote your local goods globally, the people and their cooperatives can celebrate locally what they both can achieve and helping others would make everyone proud of their and others localities. Seeing your locality thrive on the international arena thanks in no small part to decisions you helped shape and voted for - that surely is a good thing.

The EU is not founded on principles like this. I think the nation state has served its purpose and a cooperative based European Union is what will bring people, communities and their cooperatives forward, together. For the better.

*quick update*
I also believe this can work on a worldwide scale - this is another example of a cooperative movement helping its community

Musical Mutterings

Good day to you all. Last weeks top five artists were:

1.     Grinderman

2.     Queens of the Stone Age

3.     Mogwai

4.     Django Reinhardt (read his history - amazing)

5.     We Cut Corners

Grinderman are awesome. A side project to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – they bring something amazing to my music library. Nick Cave can be a bit down, with weighty lyrics at the best of times – that’s not a disparaging remark at all by the way, I love his music, but didn’t you just wish sometimes he’d just rock out a bit?! Grinderman are that. Their songs are rocking, they’re raw and they’re good! No Pussy Blues is a brilliant example of Grinderman in my view. Nick Cave’s brilliant frustrated lyrics detail how he’s doing everything he can to get a woman to sleep with him:

'I read her Eliot, I read her Yeats, I tried my best to stay up late, I fixed the hinges on her gate, but still she just never wanted to...'

But it’s his brilliance at arranging such a rocking song with an instrument he wasn’t noted for using too much – the guitar – that strikes you. His long time collaborator Warren Ellis and him are too amazing musicians. If you’re a fan of the quieter stuff, check out ‘White Lunar’ – it’s their music from movie scores they’ve written and there are some beautifully arranged and beautifully written songs. Well worth a listen.

We Cut Corners are the other band I’ll write about this week. They’re a two piece Irish band from Dublin whose debut album was released last year. ‘Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards’ went in my cd player the day I received it and didn’t leave it for a few days. Not only did it get played there, it was on constant play on my ipod too! The album got so many plays that We Cut Corners were in my top 5 most listened to bands last year! They were only surpassed by the big heavies Rammstein and Metallica. They have a few of their songs available here http://www.last.fm/music/We+Cut+Corners and their album is available from the Delphi Records website. Why do I think it’s so good? It has a bit of everything from the ‘Indie’ genre. It has a bit of screechy rock in ‘Three People’, 'Go Easy’ is a lively little song, soft yet moves nicely along. ‘A Pirate’s Life' is a lovely chilled out number. The rest of the album is as strong and worth supporting! They’re also playing in the Pavillion in Cork on November 2^nd so if you’re free it wouldn’t be a wasted evening!

Lastly, I’ll probably be reviewing this  next week as it’s newly released and these guys ROCK. I was lucky to see them in Dublin in 2010 and it was one of the best gigs I was ever at. Give it your time and ears for an hour

Reinventing Narcissism

I listened to an interesting podcast this evening. The podcast itself is called ‘Four Thought’ and it’s available on iTunes. The episode I listened to was released on October 10^th. The speaker was Mark Vernon and the description of the talk was thus:

“Mark Vernon, writer and former priest, says we should rehabilitate the concept of narcissism as a valuable form of self-love.”

Firstly let me begin this post by defining ‘narcissism’.

narcissism |ˈnärsəˌsizəm|

noun

excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance.

• Psychology extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one's own talents and a craving for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.

That is pretty harsh modern take in my view!

In my thesaurus ‘narcissism’ has the following associated with it: vanity, self-love, self-admiration, self-absorption, self-obsession, conceit, self-centeredness, self-regard, egotism, egoism.

Now if we took aside the most self-centered definitions that may have been added over the years, by my reckoning we’d be left with the following positives:

·      self-love

·      self-admiration

·      self-regard

We may also have the following slightly negative traits:

·      self-centeredness

·      self-absorption

·      egotism

I ask you to look at the positives and read them. What in all honesty is wrong with those? In my humble view – nothing is wrong with those and nothing is wrong with any person showing these traits. The following blog post will talk a bit about an institution I believe has a vested interest in keeping humanity suppressed for its own selfish gain. Engaging in ‘positive narcissism’ in my view, could help free us from this institution.

The reason Mr. Vernon’s talk caught my attention is because he spoke about an issue that has been in my thoughts since I wrote my thesis. Now my disclaimer here is that my arguments are against the institution of religion itself, namely the Roman Catholic Church whom I consider to be one of the most corrupt, evil institutions the world has seen. My arguments are not so much about religious beliefs – more the teachings of this criminal institution. Now part of my thesis involved me researching and writing about the control the institution of the Roman Catholic Church was able to place over society right from the Church’s very beginnings. A lot of the Church’s teachings have been about controlling the individual. Part of my first chapter centered on the French philosopher Michael Foucault. In lectures given in the 1970’s, Foucault spoke about certain Christian practices which firstly began with “the emergence of a very strange phenomenon in Graeco–Roman civilization, that is the organisation of a link between total obedience, knowledge of oneself, and confession to someone else.” (Foucault in Holland, 2002: 86) Foucault argued that the goal of these Christian practices was the same: Their goal was “to get individuals to work at their own ‘mortification’ in this world.” In my thesis my argument was that this phenomenon taught people to feel shame if they ever had a notion that the Church was committing wrongs and that this inbuilt shame in people caused silence rather than outspokenness in times of wrong doing for fear of offending a god and/or shaming those purportedly doing his work here on earth. I argued that this was and still is powerful and destructive control to have.

I mention this to give you the reader a very brief introduction to my theory of institutional Church control. Mr. Vernon when speaking about the criticism associated with self-love made the following point in his talk. He asks why narcissism carries such automatically negative connotations today? He says “it may have something to do with religious injunctions around the notion that its better to give than to receive, though I suspect its too easy just to blame religion.” (08.11 – 08.24) I have no such qualms! It is very easy to blame institutional religion and I have part of my argument laid out above. The institution of the Church has taught people over many, many centuries to feel ashamed of their bodies. It has taught society to feel ashamed of the natural act of sex. That any form of self-love is wrong. Only their definition of love is acceptable. This societal indoctrination of course had an impact on the psyche of people. This indoctrination led to the ‘crime’ of narcissism and the negative associations that my thesaurus listed alongside the word. My thesis aimed to prove that if society had different teachings, we would be different people. I personally turn to philosophy in my attempts to find answers and in this instance I turn to Aristotle.

While the word ‘narcissism’ was not around in Aristotle’s day, the concept of self-love was and Aristotle spoke of the need to love oneself for he believed that you are closer to yourself than to anyone else. Aristotle argued that those who denigrate self-love are thinking of people who seek the greatest honors and pleasures only for themselves. A good person who is self-loving will seek only what is best for himself or herself, which will be consistent with what is best for all. A good person will do seemingly unselfish acts, such as taking risks for friends or giving away money, but will do these things because they are noble and are motivated by self-love. 

Now I do not believe the institution of the Catholic Church fully understand or believe the message taught by their supposed saviour Jesus Christ because using Aristotle’s logic from this point, Jesus could be described as a ‘positive narcissist’.

Now, please excuse me while I paraphrase sparknotes but the following paragraph succinctly returns us to my control theory. They write that Aristotle’s discussion of self-love marks him as one of the early proponents of ethical egoism, a controversial issue in the modern world. Ethical egoism is the idea that self-love is the most important virtue and that if we all sought what was best for ourselves, the world would naturally work its way into a desirable shape without the need for selflessness. This idea is unpopular in the modern world because its most ardent proponents tend to be selfish conservatives (the emphasis is mine) who have no interest in the needs of others. Unlike us, however, Aristotle lived in a world where there was common agreement on what was good for all and where the community mattered more than the individual. In such a world, successful people measured their success in part by the success of their fellow citizens. Selfishness seems like a vice only in a world driven by individualism, where there is no evident benefit for oneself in helping others. 

Some of the most selfish conservatives that come to my mind today are the ones in the upper echelons of the Roman Catholic Church. A close second are some of the conservatives in the United States of whom a majority would recognise the Christian god as their almighty. Don’t believe me? Look at Church responses to the worldwide scandal of child rape and sexual abuse. A lot of Republican conservatives in the US argue for the right to life right up to the point of birth. Once born, you can face the death penalty at some point in your life, crippling poverty – basically neither have much interest in the needs of others. Their main priorities are maintenance of power and control over their flocks.

I believe that by reinventing the notion of self-love and thus ‘narcissism’, by removing the stigma that the institution of the Church has put on the notions of love, I believe a freer, more confident and vibrant people could emerge. My basic argument here is that in nearly everyone’s life, you are one of your own first loves. As a child, loving yourself helps to foster your belief in yourself that for example, your decision-making skills are good. Obviously the love of a parent or parents, guardian or guardians helps to foster these beliefs and they guide us back to the right path when our inexperience in life leads us off in the wrong direction. Loving yourself helps you feel grounded in your own body. It gives you confidence to face the world as an individual person; warts and all. The institution of the Church does not want this. It wants you to acknowledge that you are weakness ‘humanified’. It requires you to pray for strength to overcome your weakness. Self-love is no weakness.

I believe humanity needs to have more belief in itself and love for itself. The love starts within you. Please remember that no form of love is perfect. If we could only remove the stigma associated with narcissism I think we could persuade people to be a lot happier and a lot more confident. Not only would this removal of stigma facilitate this, I believe that it would begin to free society of the yoke that religion has placed around its existence. By accepting that we have faults and that we must live with them, only then can we can more easily accept the faults in others and become a more tolerant society. It is beliefs put in our heads by the Institution of the Church that cause us to question any theories or notions of love. When presented with thoughts, it is most important to remember the following:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~ Aristotle

Musical Mutterings 2

As the rain pours down upon my gaff, let me dip into this week’s musical mutterings!

My top five bands for the previous week were:

1.     Om

2.     Metallica

3.     Gil Scott Heron

4.     The Birthday Suit

5.     Charlie Parr

Ok so last time out I muttered somewhat about Om and how awesome they are. That would explain their position in this weeks chart. Still absolutely loving ‘Sinai’ and ‘State of Non-Return’.

But on to the first of two artists I’m looking at this week – The Birthday Suit. Currently I am in possession only of their 3 song EP called ‘Less Worthless Years’ but have pre-ordered their new album due for release sometime this month I think? They are headed by currently hiatussed Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones. He’s joined by Jacqueline Irvine, David Jack, Steve Morrison, Séan McLaughlin and Catrin Pryce-Jones. They offer nice melodic rock/folk songs. ‘Past Passes By’ is a lovely song. It’s a slow moving (not in a negative sense) song that builds beautifully and the singing just ‘goes’. It is It’s 3.40 of niceness! ‘Sing It Alone’ is a bit more of a straight up song. It starts as it means to sound, getting slightly more guitary for the chorus. Still a decent song! ‘The Longingness of Time Comp’ I like a lot. It starts with a nice picked melody with good vocals, builds gently over the first minute, adds intensity for the chorus which kind of reminds me of The Decemberists in a way, then reverses to the nice picking. They are (in my opinion) a slightly rockier version of a beauty of a band called In TheWillows. 

I’m also going to talk about Charlie Parr. Charlie was recommended by a friend in the old US of A. He’s a bluesy folk singer/songwriter. He is truly fantastic. His voice is softer than you’d imagine when you look at him but it still sounds like it has a story to tell. And tell it he does. The album I listened to last week was ‘Cheap Wine’. Seriously – check it out. Opening with a beautiful number called 1922 Blues it grabs your attention straight off. It rolls into my favourite song on the album ‘To A Scrapyard Bus Stop’. Check out the linked video. It’s a beauty. It caught my ear the very first time I heard it. Charlie is an extremely talented guitarist and the story telling in his songs really kept me listening to both the words and music solidly through this album.

That’s it for this musical mutterings. I’m working on a bigger piece for a blog due tomorrow so this is a short mutter!