Beer and Hanse History, Literature – all with a cause.
Praying is ironic
As it is a god-made mess.
Ditch those holy words.
Never believe the truth if it comes from a politician. They influence without responsibility.
Many things we take for granted as true, are in fact, not the product of an exact science. History is an example.
Historians often have an agenda. They will claim independent thought and analysis, but we know how we react when the evidence doesn’t concur with our beliefs. We hate it. Historians have this problem, too.
I chose three examples of where history has failed us and politicians have lapped it up. I have written short prose pieces to demonstrate the point.
Example 1. The denazification of German society after WW2. It was actually a very half-hearted attempt. Germany has dealt with its history but excused its criminals.
One of 12 pieces in German and English about the Topography of Terror, in Berlin.
Example 2. The British in India, 1780 to 1950 makes the Nazi criminals look like genocide novices. Britain deals with it by not talking about it.
One of 12 pieces about the Bengal genocide caused by British colonial policy. Except it wasn’t genocide, because the primary aim was profit, not death. Yeh, well!
Example 3. The bombing of civilian targets in WW2. The assumption is, the enemy doesn’t feel pain the way we do.
One of 12 pieces about the allied bombing of German cities. Alles zweisprachig. Again, it wasn’t genocide because civilian deaths were not the primary aim. Semantics rules!
If you would like to take a look, please purchase through Amazon.de or from your national Amazon account. If you are an educational institute or otherwise short of money, drop me a line via contact, and I will send the copyright free, printable PDF free of charge.
Other Amazon shortcuts.
English and German in one book. Zweisprachig, in einem Band.
If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?
By home, I mean, roots. Migration occurs because the land can’t support you and/or some bastard in charge wants to see your bollocks go through the mangle. That person might be a politician or a factory owner etc. You choose.
So you leave your family and head off to earn enough money to support your village, despite failing harvests. You undertake a gruelling journey to the coast, spend the rest of your money to climb into a boat that isn’t fit for purpose.
You have never been so scared in your life and assuming you survive this trip you still have the prejudice to overcome.
But if you received enough to make your village viable, from a concerned donor who had so much money, he can’t count it? Just a million from the billions.
How wonderful.
But we are not done there yet
When global warming brings the Gulf Stream to its knees, there will be another scenario. Here’s the picture, lifted from my collection, I heard the river laugh.
Jolly Parties Water warms, Density drops. Ice melts. Density drops. Water too light to sink Means no replacement, so The Gulf Stream heat conveyor That has warmed Us since the last ice age, Throws its switch to ‘off’. 50 million displaced by cold and hunger Move south and meet The sub-Saharan 100 million Displaced by heat and hunger, Moving north. That will be a jolly party. Who will pay for the Champagne?
Send me a mail, under contact and I’ll send you the free to copy PDF of I heard the river laugh.
When I was 60 years younger than today, I thought old people had little relevance in the world, but I was so wrong.
Me, 60 years ago. No age to start a scrap with the boss.
You see, the weaker we get (old age) the stronger we become (don’t have to give a damn). Here are some examples.
The boss is pissed because I refuse to work a 60 hour week. He is scared younger, more vulnerable staff will get ideas. Any action he takes against me, will leave him in a delicate position. If he gives me grief, I can resign and sue for bullying. I have kept a careful log of his actions and am a member of a trades union, so I’ll see him in court – unfair dismissal will cover my lost wages until retirement.
So, he does nothing and I can continue the good fight, started by people like my grandfather, who gave us the 37 hour working week. Younger colleagues can be bullied, because they have a mortgage to pay, kids in school etc. I can fight their fight.
I walked across a bridge in York and there were two police officers giving a young Asian kid grief – I know not what for.
I walk across and ask for directions. White, male, old – polite information given and received. I say, ‘That’s most helpful. Thank you. Now I’m going to cross the road and turn around and watch. If you have a reason to arrest this lad, do so. Otherwise let him go on his way.’
White, male, old – receives speechless gawps.
I cross the road, turn round in time to see the youth going on his way. I wave politely and go on my way.
A bus conductor refuses to sell a black man a ticket. He is making up nonsense excuses, such as he doesn’t know the cost, is he sure this is the right bus etc. etc.
I take out a notebook and ostentatiously record his employee number, and say quietly, ‘You are breaking the law. I will make a report to the police as soon as I reach my destination.’
White, male, old – what can he say or do?
The ticket was forthcoming.
If the fascist arsehole had punched my lights out, he would have been in the wrong and where is the street cred in hitting an old man.
If the police had arrested me for say, obstruction, they would have had to release me without charge, unless they had a reason to arrest the Asian youth, and as for my boss? Bullies respect adversaries who challenge their methods.
So get off your backsides oldens. We are so weak, we are fireproof.
60 years on, and (relatively) fearless.
Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
Pupils have never known life without a cell phone, some were born after the smartphone or iPhone. They have never known non-digital life.
I have, and I’ve recorded it in my trilogy, ‘Angst and the Beatles generation’.
You want to know how we got a date without an SMS service? Read my short story, ‘Dance Hall.’
You want to know how we got laid on holiday with the help of a telephone directory? Read number 2 – ‘April in Starnberg.’
Number 3 is about how shit life is when you are poor. Digital or analog – nothing has changed. Read number 3. ‘The Holy Mere.’
A Short History of Anxiety.
CLIVE LA PENSÉE.
Put Clive La Pensee into your Amazon search.
Good luck and enjoy the free pages.
What’s your #1 priority tomorrow?
Today was 27 degrees at 17.00. That’s about 14 degrees warmer than average for October.
It’s great except you know deep inside this is the beginning of the end of life as we know it.
And still people tear round the city in 2 ton gas-guzzlers, flooring away from every traffic light, queues at rush hour, but comfortable with the stereo and air con on full whack.
So it’s official. Humans wanna die. Lemmings first please.
But I can’t change motorist behaviour so I’m not spoiling my last days on this earth worrying about idiots in the motor trade, determined to press the destruct button.
So tomorrow I will drink tea and not consider our future.
Goodnight.
In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled?
Work involves moving a force through a distance. Hard work means moving a large force a long way. So why does concentration exhaust us? The brain is a big user of energy and so depletes or reserves. We feel tired, not fulfilled. We feel fulfilled when something goes right. The effort involved or the energy converted is irrelevant.
So work and fulfilment are not connected.
Only politicians and bosses think work is fulfilment.
For the rest of us, listening to your kids playing the piano, or kicking a ball around, is fulfilment. You go to work, to pay the bills to enable the good, fulfilling things in life to happen.
Don’t get confused by capitalist rhetoric. They want the last drop of blood from you so your kids think that’s how it should be.
Work life balance!
Demand it!
They can’t sack us all.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
When you have been wronged, looked over unfairly, caught up in a turf war that shouldn’t concern you, just do all the things you would have done it you hadn’t been wronged, looked over unfairly, involved in someone else’s immature program.
It works. Your enemies are disarmed and have no excuse to overlook you next time and possibly the turf war participants get to reconsider their actions.
The best advice I ever received.
What is the most embarrassing thing that you have ever done?
But have no regrets about having done it?
You are probably thinking of your youth and failed attempts to awaken the interest of a hoped-for lover.
Relax. It gets worse. Imagine that happening to you in your seventies, or eighties, even.
And then, in the other scenario, your attempts at attracting the object of your desire are successful. How do you tell people? What do you tell people?
Do you say, ‘I have fallen in love at the age of x years,’ where x is a number greater than 75? It sounds too absurd.
‘There is someone in my life who I’d like you to get to know.’
How mealy-mouthed is that!
Well, I have a friend challenged with this problem – how to come out in one’s twilight years and explain that overpowering emotion, called love. If you have any ideas I could pass on, please let me know.
Do crossed wires in old age make you unfit for purpose – a danger to everyone?
It’s hard work self publishing, but not as hard as finding a publisher for niche work.
My slim volume on climate change I have tried to give to various climate groups, they have the advertising platform, so they keep the proceeds.
But, those who have read it have been moved to think about things differently.
It’s been worth it.
Clive La Pensée 