Christopher Hitchens - A Call to Arms

I did not know Christopher Hitchens personally, much to my eternal disappointment, but he shall always remain a personal hero. He was one of our species' greatest friends. Inspiring millions, he was one of the big guns in the fight for rationality and intellectual honesty. By now there will be hundreds of websites online telling you all about the specific great work he did, so I won't drift too far down that road; just do a Google search. What I will say is how important his place in the world was and what we should do next.

Hitchens, along with people like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and James Randi (there are of course others – I personally like Tim Minchin!) represent the line in the sand in the battle for reason. For the majority of human history, we have been slaves to the superstitions of others (even of our own) and this has caused suffering on an unbelievable scale. Not only has it led to countless wars and persecutions, the slaughter of innocents, the murder and abuse of women and children, and the theft of property, it has dramatically held back the advancement of knowledge and learning. You don’t even have to look to history for the evidence; the modern day Middle East will serve just as well. Whilst we in the UK have come a long way in comparison to the intellectual, cultural, and technological stagnation of faith based societies, they are not alone in their ambition to drag the rest of the world back to their level.  The United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, is dominated by superstition and its politicians (like Rick Perry) compete to out-God each other, in an attempt to win over the dangerously irrational majority of voters. Given half a chance, these increasingly fundamentalist characters would waste no time in embarking on an agenda of intellectual regression, much like that of the Middle East. Americans are lucky though, because they have been given protection from their beliefs, by the foresight of the secularist Founding Fathers. The United States, whilst dangerously faith dominated in many ways, is actually not faith based, but derives from the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment was one of humanity’s finer moments in history. It marks the fight back of reason over superstition. This was when the species finally began to wake up. Hard fought intellectual battles took place against religion, but it is still ongoing even today. The simple fact of the matter is that it has taken a high degree of effort on the part of individuals to stand up for the truth and rationality, and every time there is a relaxing of that effort, the enemies of reason take ground (Hitchens was one of these people, and I aspire to eventually be one too). There are more people than ever before, now willing to stand up and admit they do not believe in God and/or do not follow any religion, but far too many of them also say that it is not for us to tell other people what they should or should not think. This is a view that is fundamentally flawed, because by not doing so, they contribute to the potential loss of the freedom to hold and express that view. It is those who do fight faith that have won the degree of freedom we currently have. Those who claim to be an atheist because they have arrived at that conclusion through reason, but who then say those like Hitchens or Dawkins are wrong to push it so forcefully, are like the conscientious objectors to a war who are more than happy to languish in the freedoms and protections that others have worked for, fought for and died for. But make no mistake, without that effort, we would face persecution for free thought, science would halt, women would be enslaved, and children would be abused physically and mentally on a far larger scale.

Christopher Hitchens’ passing then should not result in a day of tweets and then business as usual. A huge gap has been left in rational society, and our task now is to fill it. It is our duty to plug and reinforce humanity’s defences. Rather than simply say how sad it is that we have lost a great man, we need to collectively pick up the flag of reason and charge en masse. What could be a more fitting tribute than to collectively continue his work? We now need a mass movement, to step out from the virtual world and with one voice, ‘Hitch Slap’ every irrational, superstitious, faith-monger in a position of responsibility, be they priests, imams, politicians, or popular personalities. It is up to us to instigate the next Enlightenment, and Christopher Hitchens has showed us the way. This is a call to arms.

The disgustingly selfish public sector strikes of Nov 30

Today's strikes are an exercise in selfishness. Ironically typical of the left to hypocritically put their own material gain ahead of the group. The economy was crippled by debt (exposed through bad banking practice, propped up by social democrats) thanks to the kind of people now trying to bring it to its knees because they want someone else (lower paid private sector workers) to pay for it. Those supporting strike action (which will hurt the poorest the most) should be ashamed of themselves.

On the public sector pension deal put to workers by the coalition government, Ros Altmann, director general of Saga, twice recipient of the Pensions Personality of the Year Award and a governor and non-executive director of the London School of Economics said, "This is a fantastic deal for public sector workers but it is a worse deal for the taxpayer." She finds it astonishing that some public sector workers would considering rejecting the government's offer.

Union barons might talk about the treasury robbing the pension pots of civil servants, but where did the money come from in the first place? Tax payers including those in the private sector who on average are less well paid and have lower pensions are forced to prop up a vast public sector, not designed to give those tax payers quality services with good value for money, but as a charity for union members. Despite the fact that the private sector generates the wealth that fuels increases in living standards, the unions want to have as many people as possible employed in a public sector which rather than generating wealth, squanders it instead. The rich oligarchs which run the unions do so like a church, spreading lies and fear in order to swell their ill-informed congregations so the leaders can get rich in the process (usually to the detriment of their members). If you are unsure what the pay packets of union leaders are like take a look at this TPA report.  


To make matters worse, these strikes have been voted for by a small minority of public sector workers, giving them no legitimacy whatsoever; more people are drawing on their pensions than are paying into them; and public sector workers are drawing far higher pensions than they contribute, with tax payers having to make up the rest whilst cutting back themselves.

With the public sector being so massively inefficient and full of jobs that don't need doing, the government should take this opportunity to eliminate waste. How hard will the country be hit by the not showing up to work of a "walking co-ordinator", "roller disco coach", "bouncy castle attendant", "cheer-leading development officer", "future shape programme manager" and "Nuclear Free Local Authorities policy officer" or even the hundreds of diversity officers?

"There is a lot of waste," says, Neil O'Brien, director of the Policy Exchange think tank. "But most of that is not in overtly weird jobs but massive increases in pay and staff numbers. The median hourly salary is now 30% higher in the public sector than the private sector."

The public sector workers who are walking out on strike today should count themselves lucky that they have been allowed to get away with this situation for so long and they should come to the realisation that it is going to have to stop. They are not victims, they are the problem, and whilst there are many within the public sector providing vital services that we as a society rely on (albeit with massive inefficiency and waste) they have to cut back and live within their means to the same extent as everyone else.

A lesson in tolerance from the SOAS Student Union

Apparently the racism isn't getting any better - especially not with those evil Tories and their racist policies, so says the SOAS Student Union - so SOAS [whose student union is well known for its promotion of Jew hatred, and support for racist/murderous/homophobic/misogynistic outfits across the Middle East] is going to make a stand by promoting a festival to celebrate the inability (or unwillingness) of some, to reason.

You can be forgiven for thinking that could have been the problem in the first place, but it turns out the real solution is to get all the deluded people together to put aside their minor differences like, "My God is the one God and you, heathen, are going to burn in hell forever", so they can all celebrate the things they have in common; like irrationality, dogma, subjugation of women, hatred of homosexuals, suspicion of personal freedoms, and the never ending quest to keep mankind intellectually locked in the dark ages. To achieve this unified display of 'tolerance' events will be held to promote the fabrications of those who roll with God, whilst excluding of course those who opt for thinking over faith.

In the 2001 census 76.8% of respondents put themselves down as having a religion; a number which is about as reliable as the Pope in charge of a play group. The EU funded European Social Survey, 2009, found only 12% of British people belong to a church. A combination of probably more accurate surveys have found the number of religious to be around 50% in the UK.

So what could be a greater show of unified tolerance than excluding the views of half the population? Oh yeah, having the most intolerant people on the planet do it. Still, as long as we get to hear the UCLU Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Society's opinion on the London riots, that's all that matters really.

'Occupy Wall Street' mentality is the problem with Wall Street

The US political system is massively corrupt and the banks and corporations have far too much power. The problem is that they create monopolies which disrupt the free market. The members of the super committee responsible for oversight of deficit reduction have received more than $41million from the financial sector during their time in Congress and of their aides, at least 27 have been financial services lobbyists. The corporations and their political slaves, including Obama (who in '08 took more money from hedge-fund and bank employees than any other group) deserve to face a revolt. But it is the left in America that supports the "monopolistic capitalism" of Wall Street, propping up failing institutions with hand outs, endless faux-Keynesian contracts, or giving "$3.3 trillion in bailout money to overseas corporations without asking what the cash was for." If the free market was actually allowed to be a free market, then bailouts wouldn't be needed and irresponsibility wouldn't be rewarded. Left wing meddling props the whole system up.

These protesters aren't interested in sound policy; they are the same kind of hypocrites that rioted here over tuition fees. They are summed up well by the photograph of the woman posing next to her "corporate freeloaders" sign for a photo on a flashy new iPad. "Never trust the political rhetoric of young white hippies: it is undermined by their fabulous wealth and their complete detachment from reality. They travel the world from riot to riot – a cause on every continent, a ring in every orifice. They might have the diet of a North African peasant, but these spoiled brats are professional agitators financed by a generous trust fund." (Tim Stanley, Telegraph, 3rd Oct 2011)

The problem wasn't too little regulation; it was the propping up of a corrupt corporate and political system. But what these protesters want is yet more meddling and more splashing of cash. Capitalism works best when it's allowed to get on with it.

Hello and Welcome

Hello and welcome to this first edition of the Tory Lynx blog [Now 'they don't listen.']  

This blog will be a collection of comments and opinions on the world as I see it. It will cover political events and issues, moral debate, science news and current affairs, Japan interest stories and a range of other topics, for example, this month's travels around the USA.

Although I am indeed a Tory and [former] member of the Conservative Party in the UK, this blog takes no direction from Tory HQ and is free from party interference (I still help out from time to time). That also means that none of the views expressed here is necessarily endorsed by the Conservative Party, or any other organisation.

The topics may vary, but there are some general stances that will become apparent. They include right-wing political leaning (from a British and a libertarian perspective), strong antitheism, and support of science and reason over faith and quackery. You will soon get the idea.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions, then this post would be a good place to leave them.

Thank you!