Poirot,

"Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity."
T.S. Eliot

Dear Lexi,

That's good. I highly recommend it. He also has a couple of other books which I haven't read yet.

Paul1405 “When you instigate your "Final Solution" will there be "resettlement in the east"? Will your software be able to determine Aryan's from the sub-humans.”

Didn't see that one coming.
Oh, actually I did.
That's why I clearly stated the program is for evaluating immigrant applications ONLY.

The Nazis wanted perfection. Utterly absurd.
The Nazis' judgments about appearance were based on idealisations, not reality.
This face-recognition program simply *reflects* what we already are, not an attempt to change it.

The Nazis attacked specific ethnicities (Jews, Gypsies).
Since Australians descend from various origins, there is no one group that would specifically be favoured or disfavoured.
If the program shows any bias, it's based on reality, not utopian fantasies.

The Nazis attacked their own citizens.
This program is about *potential* immigrants.
Our existing citizenry will always have the right to live here.

The Nazis also attacked people for their religion, politics and sexuality, the “long list of exclusions” you hoped I'd have.
No such list.

You could have a long list, or take the short cut, scan their face.
No need for grueling interrogations or lengthy questionnaires.

People can lie, or not know the answer (many people are uncertain about their ancestries).
Facial features answer pretty much every question you could ask and takes 10 seconds.
Not approved? Sorry. Wah-wah-wah-waah. Next!

*You* are the ones ALREADY instigating a Final Solution.
To the “White Problem”.

Slowly replacing us with anything-but-White people.
Everywhere we live (Europe, North America, Australasia), just to make sure there's *nowhere* we can go, nowhere to call home.

If you don't listen to people like me, you'll get your Nazis soon enough.
They're waiting in the wings.

You can choose to stop this nonsense voluntarily, with no bloodshed.
Or see it stopped through civil war.
A war that, no matter where it starts, will spread through the *entire Western world*, killing MILLIONS!

You are flippantly gambling with million of lives.
I, the alleged Nazi, are trying to *save* their lives.

You do *not* have the option of continuing this nonsense.
Bloodless or bloody. That's your choice.

Constance,

"Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity."

I can go along with that.

The problem starts when you fashion a society where everyday acts of creation by everyday people are things of the past. It's all very well to live in a fortunate technologically advanced society, one where the things once made from the minds and hands - and the cooperation - of people are now purchased ready formed over the counter.

Where, in that case, do we funnel our anxiety - the anxiety that is always with us and exacerbated by our access to instantaneous news, etc. We funnel it into consuming for the sake of it and in competition with our fellows. I have a theory that humans weren't meant to take on board the sheer amount of disaster, mayhem and atrocity that we're fed every day. Of course times were tough in centuries gone by, there was disease, scarcity and war and things were tough. However, I don't think the average medieval peasant in their contracted little world had anymore constant anxiety than we do from imbibing our daily dose of the entire world's woes.

Tom Hodgkinson's other books are "How to be Idle", "The Idle Parent" and "Brave Old World"

Dearest Constance,

Just read a post of yours that I missed.

"Tom chose the hippy happy way of defeatism - just ignore the world's problems and create your own world."

When I was corresponding with Tom, he lived in Devon. He has since started the Academy in London - yes - but still lives on the farm in Devon.

"How to be Free" wasn't a book about changing the world - it wasn't revolutionary in any sense except in respect of one's own life and how to live it. So it wasn't a matter of "that chapter" being like such and such - the whole damn book was imbued with exactly the same philosophy. Every subject was imbued with his idea of creativity, work that meant something, cooperation and making the most out of life through idling down a bit and not stepping in time to the machine.

"That chapter" wasn't any different in essence to the entirety of the book.

'And why would you paste all Muslims with the Bali and 9/11 atrocities - anymore than you'd blame all Christians for the US slaughtering thousands in Iraq? '

Poirot

Please Poirot! People who are were slaughtered in Bali and 9/11 were done by those following the prophet. I think you wilfully ignore that fact because you refuse to acknowledge that the prophet was a man of war. What Iraq has to do with Christ you tell me. Even one of the high priest of secularism (Hitchens) thought fighting in Iraq was a good idea but I never saw any churches calling for the war in Iraq. You really do make a very poor analogy in order to avoid the truth.