Ok, I was going to save this for a video-rant but if I don't get this off my chest now I think I'm going to explode I am just that angry about this.
I went downstairs about five minutes ago so that I could get something to eat. Not wanting to take the food upstairs, I stayed downstairs and watched whatever my mum was watching, which, as usual, turned out to be absolute crap: "Peter Andre: Going it Alone". Peter motherfucking Andre, does anybody give a shit about him anymore? I never gave a shit about him apart from when I was watching him getting tortured on I'm a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here. Since appearing on that show however I could not have cared less about him and his marriage to Katie Price through which both "celebrities" made a come back with television shows, magazine interviews and ridiculously huge public interest. Who gives a shit about either of them? I think this is a fucked up country when we can back these people up and give them our undivided attention while people actually worth mentioning are grossly underpaid and under-thanked. Doctors, nurses, soldiers (fighting for the freedom of another country), police, firemen, the every day hero(ine) etc etc. are all ignored by the public because these so-called celebrities of our time are for some reason worshipped like fucking gods. There is a Buddhist saying that goes something like this "Worship the moon and not the hand pointing to the moon" this was basically to tell people not to worship false gods or even Buddha himself because of course, Buddha is not a god. Celebrities aren't the moon, nor are they the hand pointing to the moon, in fact if they were pointing to a moon it'd be one of the many orbiting around Jupiter, that is how far off being a god these "celebrities" are.
Two more soldiers died in Afghanistan recently, doctors throughout the world have probably saved hundreds or even thousands of lives just today, police have probably caught hundreds of criminals and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have probably made steady progress in restoring peace to the middle-east. These people have done amazing things for the world and I thank them for their continuing efforts despite their only public presence tending to be when they occasionally get things wrong.
Some celebrity probably received an award for something they don't deserve, another will have made a pointless speech, another will have had a meaningless interview with the press about how their day was. and another will have had their hair cut in the trendiest of hair salons and by one of the world's top hair dressers. I will enjoy spitting on your god-damn graves! These people do not deserve our admiration and devotion. I don't care what Gordon Ramsey had for breakfast, I don't care how many boob jobs Katie Price is having and I don't care which celebrity is dating which celebrity!
People stood by Michael Jackson despite the molestation charges, the stupidity of his plastic surgery and the near-dropping of his child over a balcony. Yet the people of this country (or 57% of them according to a survey by Sky News) do not support our troops who are fighting for the freedom and basic human rights of the people of the middle-east. Welcome to the modern world and all of it's fucked up people.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Religion: Basis For All Morality?
Religion has been a part of our culture for generations, particularly Christianity for the UK and the "West". It has been our guidance, sanctuary and comfort in our times of need, but now, things are very different. In a survey displayed on wikipedia, here, there is clearly a large number of "non-believers" in Europe particularly in France and the UK among other countries. I don't need to go into which part of the population has the highest "non-religious" presence because it is plainly obvious to everyone: young people aged around 12 to 25. This is common knowledge. I do not believe there to be a specific reason for the rise in atheist/non-religious/agnostic in recent years but speaking as one of the atheists in the 12 to 25 band my opinion is that we don't need it anymore. I was brought up Christian however my parents were never so religious as to say grace or pray at all even or at least they never have around me. My grandparents on the other hand were very religious and took me to Sunday school every week which in all honesty I found to be boring and frankly ridiculous. I realised very early on that the Bible wasn't something to be taken seriously and that it was just like any other story book: it had a point and a message to put across but it was too far-fetched to be taken literally, even for me when I was about 7 years old!
With the abandonment of the Church at around about that age I did not become a rebellious demon-child with no morals, ethics or sense of right and wrong. I did not start worshipping the devil, vandalising churches or resent anyone who was religious in any way. The reason I say this is that some religious people in this country, and in others I am sure, seem to think that religion is the only thing that can give us the necessary guidance to be good citizens. Now, having rejected my religious background from both sides of my family and, I believe, being the first in the family to openly state that I am an atheist, I have turned out fine and have not lost common decency, manners or lawfulness. I am still the same person and always have been. Many of my friends are atheists in fact I struggle to think of the few who are not! All of them are also good citizens and have a good sense of morality. My point is that religion is not a necessity for society. People are intelligent enough these days to choose their own path and break away from thousands of years of tradition in order to pursue their own paths and should be able to do so without having some people turning up at their door trying to cram their beliefs down our throats.
And that is the second biggest thing I hate about religion: the need to convert others. If someone wants to seek help then they will now stop bugging me! As an atheist I have never felt as though a higher power has done anything for me that has been good. I have seen nothing in the world today to suggest that there is any god or at least none with good intentions. If there is a God then they are toying with me and all of us in fact. In my case they have put me on the other side of the f@£$%!* Atlantic Ocean to the person I want to be with more than anything in the world. And this isn't the first time they've done something like that either.
However, all of these things become trivial and microscopic in comparison to my number one hate reason for religion: violence. Most religions claim to want peace on Earth and want everyone to just get along, or words to that effect. Ha! Yeah right. Christianity has been in civil war for centuries despite the fact that they worship the same god! Islam, well I don't know enough about it to claim anything other than the religion does promote peace but there are still Islamic extremists trying to kill everyone who isn't Muslim (or so they say). Even in football matches (which I hate because of football hooliganism) there has been religiously inspired street fights between fans of teams like Celtic and Rangers.
So, religious people claim that non-religious people don't have morality, that they become criminals and that they cause today's problems. But no. Religious or not, if a person is violent then they are violent, if a person has no sense of morality then they weren't brought up with a sense of morality and if a person is a person then they are who they are and religion has nothing to do with it.
With the abandonment of the Church at around about that age I did not become a rebellious demon-child with no morals, ethics or sense of right and wrong. I did not start worshipping the devil, vandalising churches or resent anyone who was religious in any way. The reason I say this is that some religious people in this country, and in others I am sure, seem to think that religion is the only thing that can give us the necessary guidance to be good citizens. Now, having rejected my religious background from both sides of my family and, I believe, being the first in the family to openly state that I am an atheist, I have turned out fine and have not lost common decency, manners or lawfulness. I am still the same person and always have been. Many of my friends are atheists in fact I struggle to think of the few who are not! All of them are also good citizens and have a good sense of morality. My point is that religion is not a necessity for society. People are intelligent enough these days to choose their own path and break away from thousands of years of tradition in order to pursue their own paths and should be able to do so without having some people turning up at their door trying to cram their beliefs down our throats.
And that is the second biggest thing I hate about religion: the need to convert others. If someone wants to seek help then they will now stop bugging me! As an atheist I have never felt as though a higher power has done anything for me that has been good. I have seen nothing in the world today to suggest that there is any god or at least none with good intentions. If there is a God then they are toying with me and all of us in fact. In my case they have put me on the other side of the f@£$%!* Atlantic Ocean to the person I want to be with more than anything in the world. And this isn't the first time they've done something like that either.
However, all of these things become trivial and microscopic in comparison to my number one hate reason for religion: violence. Most religions claim to want peace on Earth and want everyone to just get along, or words to that effect. Ha! Yeah right. Christianity has been in civil war for centuries despite the fact that they worship the same god! Islam, well I don't know enough about it to claim anything other than the religion does promote peace but there are still Islamic extremists trying to kill everyone who isn't Muslim (or so they say). Even in football matches (which I hate because of football hooliganism) there has been religiously inspired street fights between fans of teams like Celtic and Rangers.
So, religious people claim that non-religious people don't have morality, that they become criminals and that they cause today's problems. But no. Religious or not, if a person is violent then they are violent, if a person has no sense of morality then they weren't brought up with a sense of morality and if a person is a person then they are who they are and religion has nothing to do with it.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The Media: Ruiners of Exam Results
Wednesday 5th August was a day of celebration or despair for Scotland's youth. I am one of the lucky ones who were celebrating it because I received good exam results. Some of my friends however, were not so lucky. I have spoken to a few who did not receive the results they wanted and as a consequence have had to stay at school longer than initially planned or have had their university decision made for them. Having read that, try to now realise how much work is needed to get the exams right. Consider how many factors are involved such as the quality of teaching and quality of revision technique for example. Consider how much pressure the youth of today is under to do well. We are constantly encouraged to do well and to receive a good education and to do our very best or better in our exams. Also consider that this pressure has rendered some of my friends panic-stricken to the point of having panic attacks while doing an exam. Now that you are thinking about this in the right mindset, ie my mindset, let's move on to what has got me in the ranting mood and why I am writing this.
On "results day" I was at work until about 1930 and upon returning home I watched the news mostly out of laziness to change the channel but partly because I heard there would be a report on the exam results. So when they eventually did mention them, imagine how insulted I was and my friends (some of whom failed all of their exams) were when they said that the exam results were getting too easy. I felt like screaming F*&$ YOU to the TV but my mum was in the room at the time and I didn't want to startle her. The media always portray today's youth as a menace to society whose intelligence is slipping and whose behaviour is completely out of line. Every last one of us. Not just the few idiots who are actually the ones doing drugs, getting pregnant (at disgustingly young ages), and being socially unacceptable, but all of us. The exams give us a chance to prove that not all of us are idiots and the moment that we succeed in record numbers (again) you have the nerve to say that the exams are getting easier simply because we are doing better. Did you ever stop to think about other factors such as teaching, syllabus changes or revision techniques? How about the pressure put on us by our families, peers and teachers? And what about the relentless portrayal of every single teenager as society's number one hate-figure? People are scared of me in the street because the news says I am a violent thug who passed his exams with good results not because I worked hard at them but because the exams are easy.
The Standard Grade system (for pupils in S3/4) is ridiculously easy I will allow you to say that because it is almost impossible to fail them due to the fact that there are 3 levels all of which are split into 2 grades each as well as the fact that the lowest pass level could be completed by any competent individual in their sleep. However the report was aimed at the Scottish Higher system (S5/6) so I will not for one second allow you to say that they are easy. English for example is impossible, or at least it was for me but then I am a very logical and technical person so the creativity involved in English studies alludes me. Hence I failed the subject for a year and a half before deciding to focus on subjects I actually needed.
What I would like to see is the pass-rate of any person who has not been in school for 3 years or more. Test them and see how f*&%$@! easy they are to pass and how much work you need to do.
This has been a rant dedicated to everyone who felt the same way as I did when they were insulted on national television about their proudest, or most shameful, moment of their school careers.
On "results day" I was at work until about 1930 and upon returning home I watched the news mostly out of laziness to change the channel but partly because I heard there would be a report on the exam results. So when they eventually did mention them, imagine how insulted I was and my friends (some of whom failed all of their exams) were when they said that the exam results were getting too easy. I felt like screaming F*&$ YOU to the TV but my mum was in the room at the time and I didn't want to startle her. The media always portray today's youth as a menace to society whose intelligence is slipping and whose behaviour is completely out of line. Every last one of us. Not just the few idiots who are actually the ones doing drugs, getting pregnant (at disgustingly young ages), and being socially unacceptable, but all of us. The exams give us a chance to prove that not all of us are idiots and the moment that we succeed in record numbers (again) you have the nerve to say that the exams are getting easier simply because we are doing better. Did you ever stop to think about other factors such as teaching, syllabus changes or revision techniques? How about the pressure put on us by our families, peers and teachers? And what about the relentless portrayal of every single teenager as society's number one hate-figure? People are scared of me in the street because the news says I am a violent thug who passed his exams with good results not because I worked hard at them but because the exams are easy.
The Standard Grade system (for pupils in S3/4) is ridiculously easy I will allow you to say that because it is almost impossible to fail them due to the fact that there are 3 levels all of which are split into 2 grades each as well as the fact that the lowest pass level could be completed by any competent individual in their sleep. However the report was aimed at the Scottish Higher system (S5/6) so I will not for one second allow you to say that they are easy. English for example is impossible, or at least it was for me but then I am a very logical and technical person so the creativity involved in English studies alludes me. Hence I failed the subject for a year and a half before deciding to focus on subjects I actually needed.
What I would like to see is the pass-rate of any person who has not been in school for 3 years or more. Test them and see how f*&%$@! easy they are to pass and how much work you need to do.
This has been a rant dedicated to everyone who felt the same way as I did when they were insulted on national television about their proudest, or most shameful, moment of their school careers.
Purpose of this Site
Hi there, I am Ross Barnie and this is my Rants blog. I have a youtube channel here where I have posted video rants and also provide guitar covers of songs I like and can play.
This site is to appetise my love for ranting at things I hear about while not having to record myself over 10 times before getting it right, now I just have to read this over 10 times instead! So enjoy my rants and please check out my youtube channel and subscribe if you like what I do.
This site is to appetise my love for ranting at things I hear about while not having to record myself over 10 times before getting it right, now I just have to read this over 10 times instead! So enjoy my rants and please check out my youtube channel and subscribe if you like what I do.
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