tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post8430254367079178279..comments2023-11-03T11:32:01.540+00:00Comments on Thought Experiments : The Blog: Just a ThoughtBryan Appleyardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-18009615356866671452007-08-28T13:51:00.000+00:002007-08-28T13:51:00.000+00:00I'm a Londoner me, and there have been plenty of W...I'm a Londoner me, and there have been plenty of Walls of Silence there too. The thing is that Liverpool so insistently proclaims its uniquely warm sense of community (among many other loudly trumpeted virtues). A pudding's end, I say.Nigehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13314891387515045404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-47062088974790902362007-08-28T08:59:00.000+00:002007-08-28T08:59:00.000+00:00Could there be anything worse than a bitter & obse...Could there be anything worse than a bitter & obsessed Mancunian who's not even from Manchester?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-72950112375513736132007-08-27T21:44:00.000+00:002007-08-27T21:44:00.000+00:00Actually, Jay, that was Nige not me and he's defin...Actually, Jay, that was Nige not me and he's definitely not from Manchester.Bryan Appleyardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-22496916892322018702007-08-27T21:15:00.000+00:002007-08-27T21:15:00.000+00:00Liverpool creates a wall of silence over the shoot...Liverpool creates a wall of silence over the shooting? Nice one to latch your anti-Liverpool prejudice onto a dead kid, well done. Anyway, don't you remember the recent public inquiry into the shooting dead of a 15 year old boy in Moss Side, in which nobody came forward, and secrecy for witnesses of the kind seen in a mafia trial was employed in light of the wall of silence in Manchester? What Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-43622646353946007032007-08-26T23:59:00.000+00:002007-08-26T23:59:00.000+00:00respect is the keystone to civilization.respect is the keystone to civilization.Ian russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11106519805045337505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-24015538681475181842007-08-26T18:47:00.000+00:002007-08-26T18:47:00.000+00:00Yes, it's a valuable point that if you really want...Yes, it's a valuable point that if you really want to change your life then a spiritual experience of some kind may be necessary. But it doesn't have to be a Christian one or even one associated with a particular religion, though for many it will be not least because in embracing a religion a person will also be embracing a healthy community instead of the gangster community or no community.<BR/>Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06074816573442173758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-9701258561589722042007-08-26T18:41:00.000+00:002007-08-26T18:41:00.000+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06074816573442173758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-90808376575529215722007-08-26T14:21:00.000+00:002007-08-26T14:21:00.000+00:00The most humane & sensible course is to sterilise ...The most humane & sensible course is to sterilise the lot of them. They'll be a nuisance for a while, then they'll shoot or o/dose themselves, and things will brighten up. It's a strange & evil fact that the people least qualified (by character or circumstance) to raise children have the most - the result is a generation of sociopaths, or 'chavs' as they're known, or 'the British' as they will Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-7790538235496932842007-08-26T13:37:00.000+00:002007-08-26T13:37:00.000+00:00David Hare addresses this very well in his play, "...David Hare addresses this very well in his play, "Racing Demon." Check it out, guys.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-47099271895988001822007-08-26T13:19:00.000+00:002007-08-26T13:19:00.000+00:00Who is cooler, do you think: Desmond Tutu or 50 Ce...Who is cooler, do you think: Desmond Tutu or 50 Cent? Which of the two would your average inner city yoof most likely want to be?<BR/><BR/>The path to civilisation is irrevocably lost. <BR/><BR/>All you can do is to lobotomise them (or let them do it themselves, with their pissy homemade guns).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-79408512203565255472007-08-26T12:41:00.000+00:002007-08-26T12:41:00.000+00:00Yes Nige, we are very atomized socially in the sen...Yes Nige, we are very atomized socially in the sense of putting great stock in our individual freedom and choice to live as we will. There are some very good reasons for this, but what we don't see anymore is how what starts as the assertion of a political principle can come to colour our very perception of what the problem is objectively. Just as an example, we touched on alcohol the other dayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-75440219740918906912007-08-26T11:56:00.000+00:002007-08-26T11:56:00.000+00:00Good point, Peter. I think it's a case of That wa...Good point, Peter. I think it's a case of That was then, this is now. We live in atomised times, lacking many of the social structures - not to mention the glue of deference - that subsisted even in Darkest England in the 19th century. <BR/>Of course if conversion is only effective at a personal level, that means it's unlikely to have any wide social effect - more a case of here and there A Nigehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13314891387515045404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-44888068269646842572007-08-26T11:39:00.000+00:002007-08-26T11:39:00.000+00:00Worthy of a hundred-comment dust-up, this one. Bu...Worthy of a hundred-comment dust-up, this one. But is there not a contradiction in your argument? If the churches were successful in reclaiming and civilizing "great swathes of the civil wasteland", how can you then say Christian conversion is only effective "on a purely individual level"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com