It’s in the papers so it must be true.

One day, two contradictory stories. Story one, the British army is to be reduced from 102,000 soldiers to 82,000. Some soldiers will loose their jobs. Next story, Britain recruits children to plug the gap in soldier numbers. So, are there too many soldiers or not enough? Who should I believe?

Actually the subject of “child recruitment” has nothing to do with shortage of soldiers and all to do with technical training. It is possible to become a Junior Soldier at the age of 16 but this not for combat roles rather it is that of a training scheme in technical matters. I can see no similarity at all the policy adopted by some war lords of enslaving children and forcing them to become killers.

Of course the job of Junior soldier does not suit everybody but I can clearly see that it suits some perfectly. Frustrating a teenagers ambition to follow a career path, often to escape from an impoverished (both financially and intellectually) background is not in the best interests of either the teenager or  the greater society.

Profit maximisation, a paradigm shift

I read recently that modern multi national corporations exhibit psychopathic tendencies. Now a psychopath is some body with a chronic mental disorder, more fully described as 

“The study of the psychopath reveals an individual who is incapable of feeling guilt, remorse or empathy for their actions. They are generally cunning, manipulative and know the difference between right and wrong but dismiss it as applying to them.

They are incapable of normal emotions such as love, generally react without considering the consequences of their actions and show extreme egocentric and narcissistic behaviour.”

Now I ask you, honestly, is it possible to apply this to a none person, a corporation? I read recently that it was, and more, that these companies are really psychopathic.

A corporation is a legal entity. It exists. It can own property, hire and fire workers and move its headquarters anywhere in the world. It is predicated (that word again), on one simple aim, profit maximisation. So strong is this motive that it is possible for the owners of a company (the share holders) to take legal action against the officers of the company if the are not motivated by that one simple imperative. Profit Rules! 

Now I have to say that if a person acted solely on that principle, they could well be considered to be a psychopath since being a normal human requires much more than the pursuit of money at all costs. A human lives in a society and is normally part of a family. It is generally considered that this provides great benefits such as security and services. People who choose to live outside society are definitely considered to be somewhat odd in the least, in some cases, dangerous. 

The problem is that this corporate pursuit of money has begun to infect society and this I think is a game changer (or as it is now know, a paradigm shift). Where once we had soldiers, we now have private contractors. Where one we had state/county prisons, we have private correctional facilities. Where once we had police, we have private security guards. And all of these people are working for one reason only, profit maximisation.

I’m a great fence sitter. As my mother used to say, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything. so I try to look for the best in people. However, when it comes to this new trend in society, effectively its destruction, I have to say I struggle not to shout from the roof tops “This is a disaster”. Effectively it legitimises psychopathic behaviour and gradually erodes the glue that holds our nations together. Let me quote one example. There are two ways of punishing offenders, custodial (prison) or none custodial, (such as probation, or community service). Now nobody would ever go into the probation service for the high salaries. Normally it is a profession reserved for those that care, and want to do the best they can. Like the police or government administration, it is called a service not a business and the rewards are not just money but security, some element of prestige and status. But now the plan is to make it into a business, so it becomes the probation business. Do I really have to spell it out? (OK, I will) “ This is a disaster”.

For those of you who are sceptical, I would draw your attention to a recent case in which judges took money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit youth jails. In 2011, former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella was convicted of accepting bribes for putting juveniles into detention centres operated by the companies PA Child Care and a sister company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care. Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, are said to have received $2.6 million for their efforts. Clearly honour, prestige and security was not enough for them. Maximisation of profit in action!

Now you might say that the fact they were sent to prison (for an incredible 28 years) destroys my case. On the contrary. The fact that they did it proves to me that the disease is spreading and with further privatisation in the pipe line, only set to get worse.

Too many memories.

A well documented problem of old age seems to be memory loss. I suppose that we all live in fear of that affliction. Not knowing who you are, or who your family and friends are must be really disturbing, though probably more for the friends and family than the sufferer.

But now it occurs to me that a similar problem may well be not memory deficiency but memory excess. Too many memories, rather than not enough. A recent example occurred when I created a picture comment (posted here”- picturecomments.wordpress.com).

I took what I thought would be a universally recognised still shot from the really famous movie by the Russian director Eisenstein “Ivan the Terrible” If you are not a film buff and were born after 1950 you probably haven’t seen it. In place of the face of the medieval tzar, I superimposed that of the current Russian Tsar (sorry, I mean President) Putin. In place of the poor Prince I put the face of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and added the caption, merciful Tzar spares poor prince.

I thought this was pretty clever and sent it to a few friends but found that only one recognised the picture at all. For the rest it was completely unknown. In fact much of what my own character is built upon is unknown to the vast majority of the population.  My personality creating books, tv shows and movies have been superseded by more modern offerings (though not necessarily better, have you seen the re-make of The Wicker Man? Ugh). In a nutshell, I have become an anachronism.  The younger generation dances to a different beat and my memories are irrelevant.

Does it matter? Well actually I think it does, especially when we consider that well know aphorism penned by the famous (but only if you know him) philosopher George Santayana. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. It increasingly seems to me that modern politics thrives on memory loss. You might, if you are old enough, remember a time when there was a family “bread winner” usually the man, who could earn enough to support his wife and children. What do we have now? A western world where both man and woman must work to support the household. That’s real progress.

Clearly very many women like to work, and may even be more competent than the “man”. I don’t wish to criticise that at all, just point out that, where once a family could manage with one “bread winner”, now it really does need two.

aphorism

a pithy observation which contains a general truth

Too many words, not enough time.

Patents, that wonderful legal process which protects inventors from having their ideas stolen, is pretty important today, and especially so in the field of technology. As something of a technology refusenik, mostly rejecting such things as Facebook (though clearly not blogs) these patents are of little interest; it is a young mans game I think.

You might imagine my surprise then to discover that not only is the head of the patent office in the USA is an 84 year old man, one James Bilington but that he recently changed the existing policy to make “unlocking” a cell phone illegal and subject to a $500,000 fine and five years in prison.  Just in case you didn’t get that, I’ll say it again, a $500,000 fine and five years in prison.

Let’s just get this straight. You buy a phone on a 2year contract and at the end of that period you have one of three choices. Either to have a new contract with the same supplier, you throw the phone away, or you risk the fine/prison option, unlock the phone and go to a different carrier.

It is reckoned that there are some 30 million unlocked phones in the USA so clearly this would be good news not only for the two controllers of the cell phone business in the USA, AT&T and Verizon, but a big boost to the privatised prison system. A win win as some might say. But now OBAMA has stepped in to spoil the party siding with the 114,000 petitioners who thought this idea was bad for rest of the USA population. It looks like the policy will be overthrown.The above is 286 words. The original article of 1100 words which inspired me can be found here, if you have the time.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/28/stupidest-law-illegal-to-unlock-your-phone