It’s been a while since I blogged. I started writing about Hurricane Katrina a few days ago, and still have the draft of that blog entry floating around, but I couldn’t finish it. What can be said? I may comment on the tragedy at a later date, but not now.
Instead I’m going to talk about Gair Rhydd, Cardiff University Students’ Union’s award-winning newspaper, to which I am a contributor. The new website is now online, complete with PDFs of last year’s issues, and will soon be home to all the wonderful new articles and features to be published over the coming months.
I’ve tracked down the various articles for the paper that I have yet to post on my blog, and can now present them to you for your reading pleasure.
I couldn’t resist crowing in triumph when Doctor Who trounced Celebrity Wrestling in the ratings (in fact, it did so badly it was also beaten by the repeats of Porridge on BBC2!) as I discussed the current state of television.
When the election came around, I looked at some of the problems with our system and the need to hold politicians accountable, asking if we have Delusions of Democracy?
I managed to provoke a letter in response to one of my articles when I set about rubbishing the silly superstition of Astrology in my article Horror-scopes. I committed the cardinal sin of “not being tolerant of other people’s beliefs” in the eyes of the letter writer, apparently called Claire Voyant. I responded with a rebuttal of her comments, saying that I respect people’s right to their beliefs, but not necessarily their beliefs themselves.
On that note, I wrote my article defending The Right to be Wrong, explaining why tolerance must be based on a respect for people’s right and responsibility of making their own minds up, rather than on any inherent value of their beliefs. I went on to say how true tolerance is “agreeing to disagree” rather than “agreeing never to disagree”.
In my final article of the year in the broadsheet edition of the paper, I discussed whether Freedom without Chaos is a sustainable possibility. Drawing on some of the ideas from the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares and the thinking of Francis Schaeffer, I argued that Western civilization is rapidly losing the Christian moral consensus that made freedom without chaos possible. The ever-increasing fragmentation of belief and morality leaves us in a situation where governments need to implement increasingly totalitarian measures to preserve social order. (The Government’s drive to promote “Respect” is just the latest manifestation of this necessity).
I hope you enjoy reading those – your comments are, as always, very welcome.
