Social Grotesque I

Sometimes you just have to be disgusted at our grotesque society.

The recent buzz around the Copenhagen conference on global warming touted this as the time that environmental problems will be solved. Or at least, a coherent and importantly, fair method of approaching a situation would be outlined. Of course, thus far this has been a massive failure and a farce. Should the most influential world leaders have their way developing nations will take more of the burden relative to their carbon output. They will pay more for a world wide problem that they had a smaller hand in causing.

Along with this conference has been an increasingly obvious dialogue related to population sizes. A documentary featuring David Attenborough highlighted the issue very succinctly by highlighting that we currently need one and a half planet earths to maintain the consumption of our increasing world population. Is not this ridiculously over-use of natural resources disgustingly grotesque? Surely we have to directly address this problem of over population as it is becoming a very practical issue.

However, answers to this grotesque problem have been even more grotesque. The previously mentioned documentary discussed the policies of many past governments in their efforts to keep their population down. These range from a limit on the number of children legally allowed by the government, to the forced vivisection of males across the country. Every solution to this problem is naturally sickening. If we cannot find an answer to this problem that is not as vile as its origins then we need to look elsewhere.

Copenhagen is failing because we have not recognised the grotesque society we have created. It is borne out in the environmental problems we face, the solutions we have proposed and the manner in which our world leaders are dealing with it.

-The English Student

Rising and Underlying Tension I

World politics is constantly driven by tension.

A quick look at any newspaper will give the most casual follower of world events an insight into the current tension gripping the international community. Riots in Iran continue and have widened the gap between the Iranian government and the UK and US. North Korea continues to defy United Nations sanctions. The Honduras crisis continues, the African Union has pulled out of the International Criminal Court and the Israeli and Palestinian conflict continues. In addition to this, tension and fighting remains a constant in Georgia, Iraq and Afghanistan. So the obvious question is, are we heading for another world war?

These types of patterns have occurred many times before. World wide tension came to a head in the early twentieth century with two world wars and countless smaller conflicts. What was the result of these wars? Utter destruction and desolation is an obvious answer but if we look at the modern state of these countries another result is apparent. There is no whisper of tension remaining between former world war enemies in Europe. France and Germany have become strong allies and the UK continues to engage with the mainland. These wars were awful, but they were cathartic.

Compare this situation to the Cold War of the late twentieth century. There was a huge level of tension between these countries with a constant threat of war hanging over the heads of every citizen across the world. However, war between Russia and America never broke out and tension between these countries has never been fully dissipated. The "cult of the leader" remains strong in both countries and this is often founded on governments defining themselves in contrast to the old enemy.

Make no mistake, I am a committed pacifist but it seems that rising and underlying tension very rarely is solved by anything except war.

-The English Student