David Nutt talk - be there or stay misinformed

A couple of weeks back I hit a particularly rich and interesting research seam for another project. For that reason alone I cannot blog much until I find time to read through and start processing it.

Still, I can at least point anyone who hasn't yet heard towards the David Nutt lecture at the Manx Museum on Monday 28^th April. It's a co-production between Isle of Man Freethinkers and the Positive Action Group: no tickets or seat-booking and free entry/contribute what you can towards costs, so best be there at 7 PM for a safe seat. You can find more at http://positiveactiongroup.org/index.html.

And before anyone asks, no, though I have banged on about such topics regularly, I am not an organiser. If I had any influence on the decision to set up such an event, it is quite marginal, stemming from a proposal I floated to some of the older Freethinkers a few years back.

Following the death of my good friend Patrick Kneen, the Manx assisted death campaigner, and once a misguided attempt to prosecute his widow had gone away, I thought it would be a shame to lose the Manx public's new willingness to explore controversial topics in an open and civilised way. The Kneens' brave campaign opened the floodgates on an island where I had almost given up hope of seeing social change or even temporary relief from Theo-fascist twaddle. For once, local religious bigots and control freaks were caught on the back foot (despite their considerable government influence), as was also shown later by the way one homophobic legal or governmental barrier after another fell quickly in just a few years.
I tentatively put it to Mrs Kneen that it would be nice to remember Pat by setting up an annual lecture in his name. The general idea would be to bring over a knowledgeable, high profile speaker on the kind of topic locals might quietly have strong feelings about but no means to start a debate and keep their jobs. She was very keen, but as she moved away to rebuild her life and died just a year or two later, the idea got no further. I did then put it to the Freethinkers that, as possibly the only local grouping interested in social change but unlikely to ever beg public money, we really ought to give it a go.
I can hardly wait for the rare experience of entering a Manx public sector building to hear someone with expert and highly specialised knowledge willing to engage with the general public. Someone who is neither looking for nor seeking to perpetuate a public handout (and even if he was, not willing to lie or suppress vital research or evidence in order to do so). This may explain why it took two groups of enthusiastic, public-minded folk rather than a QUANGO or civil service body to set the night up. It also explains why nobody with a serious interest in the topic should miss it, and why I doubt anyone involved in the Chief Minister's Task Farce on Drugs and Alcohol or their ludicrous policies will be there.

Freethinking not allowed

I hear reports that, despite my spelling things out in such a simple manner that even an unelected political layabout ought to be able to follow, local members of the Deluded Herd insist on trying to represent this blog as the work and opinions of the Isle of Man Freethinkers. This on the slight premise that my profile until now described me as a libertarian and freethinker.
I am probably wasting my time trying to accomodate people who appear to be braindead and cannot even spell honesty, never mind define it or practice it. But for the sake of all local humanists, atheists and agnostics with infinitely more patience than me, who attempt to press their arguments for a sane and rational island in an unfailingly polite manner which should offend no reasonable person, let us try once again.
(sighs, grits teeth, counts to ten.......)
From this point onwards I shall follow the excellent example of Chris Hitchens and describe my position on religion (and indeed all forms of blind, unquestioning belief) as 'contrarian'.
I argue about these things for the hell (and very heaven) of it. I do not seek or claim to represent anyone else.
As I have always said, and repeat once more, I deliberately set out to wind up fundamentalists of all stripes (atheists included) until they explode. And I do this merely because it amuses me, and those as bored with any type of kneejerking conformism as me.
I have no agenda, seek no position or reward, and don't even care if I am widely read. If what I write gives some comfort to anyone else who has to put up with similar nonsense in any other place where just waking up in the morning and daring to think is regarded as a heinous crime, cool.
Is this clear enough?
Can we move on?

I was a teenage Freethinker

Can I point the less wrinkly readers of my efforts to the Young Freethought Blog which went up this week at http://www.youngfreethought.blogspot.com/. There is also a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Young-Freethought/309273265572.
This is a chance to link up with other young atheists and also get your writing published.
The editors say:
“Young Freethought is here to try and give a voice to a small section of society that, we feel, is currently being ignored. Young atheists and freethinkers are abundant, but trying to find out just what they think is a difficult thing. This is why we will accept submissions from anyone aged 16-21, on issues relating to Freethought. This could be a book review, an opinion piece on current news or even a small essay.”
“…If you're an experienced writer, or have never tried your hand at it before, it doesn't matter. We consider all entries equally.”
The blog got off to a flying start with a heavyweight piece on John Polkinghorne, former Cambridge physics professor, now Anglican priest and 2002 recipient of the Templeton Prize – which is a bit like giving up astronomy for astrology, then having your new scribblings underwritten by the Moonies.
Seriously though – excellent stuff, and hope they find plenty of new talent to keep it up.

Car driving considered as libertarian good practice

My brand of freethinking is more concerned with what to do once you’re free of instinctive puritanism and subconscious yearnings for Big Daddy so peculiar to religion than with getting state-subsidised religionists off your back. So, I do like to keep an eye on ‘freethinkers’ in the wider sense, which in turn means I regularly check out libertarians and other individualists too.
The US libertarian community is wide-ranging enough to encompass anyone from Milton Friedman to members of the Grateful Dead, from the organisers of ‘Burning Man’ to the Cato Institute. Sadly, I find that the UK variant means to be as free ranging, but scratch the surface and way too often a ‘Little Englander’ emerges – especially when Europe or immigration gets mentioned.
Still, I spotted this provocative little item on a libertarian blog a few days ago (see http://northwestlibertarians.blogspot.com/2009/03/shared-space.html) and meant to pass it on.
I once used a similar example in more modest form (and more unusual format) on a Manx Radio ‘Thought For The Day’, believe it or not! As I drive to work daily, I’m fascinated that there’s never a traffic jam at a busy and complicated roundabout until a police officer starts to direct traffic, because left to their own devices 99% of drivers have the sense and decency to work things out fairly. Similarly, at one of those temporary traffic lights that accompanies road works, how long before someone gets irritated at a pre-timed red light and drives on when you can see the opposing traffic light 50 metres up the road has nothing coming? I could also mention supermarket car parks with one way signs to each row, so you have to drive up and down three rows to get to the second space to the top on a row where the arrow points the wrong way. Why do so few people just drive straight in when there’s not even one moving car in the entire car park?
The blog mentioned above also reminds me of an item I saw on a newspaper website a few years back, where an English town council were adopting ever bigger and more threatening road signs to stop people committing suicide by driving through or clambering over crash barriers to jump into the river. A Dutch blogger laughed at this, saying that in Amsterdam they had the odd problem with suicide by similar means. They chose to deal with it by a polite little sign on the barrier saying, in effect, that it was your choice and right to commit suicide, but if you failed you would be billed for the damage to the barrier and inconvenience to the emergency services.
Some countries and communities really do have a more enlightened attitude to individual freedom and personal responsibility. Some of us in others, I suspect, will just have to ignore or laugh at the nagging a while longer. All poorly wired machines short circuit eventually.