Beyond Disbelief

If you find such cynicism 'bracing', then find more of it here....

Frozen Warnings

The Martin Niemoller quote

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
 
is rightly famous and often paraphrased in social media
to point towards who the latest dangerous demagogue is
for their presuming to speak for all through a biased media
which is distorts every message whilst drowning other voices.

But when Martin spoke his truth at the public meetings
he was invited to lead his warning came after WW2
and it was told to convict reticent Protestants of the silence
that had made them complicit whilst other groups perished.
It took him many years to appreciate the error in his ways.

The greater the cause, the later the warning is given.
Far too many a warnings are heard after the event. 

Working Class Atheism

was built around the efficacy of alcohol
as a constant in the lives of the men
who laboured long in dirty factories,
rather than the power of positive thought
or some theological alternative.
That family life was as driven by it
as ever the history of religions
is a history of different rulers
going to war was is not the point.
The aim was for as many households
as there were men with dirty jobs
which could be self sufficient in fear.
The patriarch was the power point
through whom all life ensued.

Shame and hypocrisy cut their own paths
through family life, whether from belief,
credulity, or cynicism, but always preferably
they blackened other families more than your own.

Worse Than Hell?

Biblical stories about Hell describe a scene
that is familiar from repetition, but rarely examined.
One where there is 'much wailing and gnashing of teeth'.
I assume the gnashing is from mental trauma,
and is a sign of the most severe and permanent stress.
But I think also that the teeth that gnashed in Hell
were the sufferers own; theirs from their former life,
when they had eaten well to stay healthy,
even as they had behaved worse than badly.

In medieval depictions of Hell
suffering is hierarchical but universal,
and never one-sided, those who goad
others to suffer are always being goaded
towards torturing themselves even more.

The common description made by those
who reached the Nazi camps as the guards fled
is that those arriving saw 'A scene from Hell',
and not being there then-as they arrived-
I gladly accept their description of the suffering.

But given the small portions of thin gruel
issued as rations in the 27 work camps
I would dispute that it was Hell-the nutrition
in the food was insufficient for the workers
to keep their teeth, never mind their lives.
What could they gnash with, as they wailed inwardly?
Inwardly because if as a prisoner
you wanted to help others
then weakness had to be flatly denied.

And in all 11 of the death camps the arrivals
were meant to die, and their overlords live
sumptuously on the sale of their remains.

In the medieval depictions of Hell
suffering was far more egalitarian.
In the depth of the depicted suffering
human life was never as cheap
as the Nazis made it seem,
to justify themselves.