Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Nick Cohen the British journalist, author and political commentator has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘Secular Britain is ruled by religious bureaucrats’ asking why is the church still such a force in our society when most of us disregard its clerics’ teachings? Cohen states “The number of people who say they have no religion jumped from 15% in the 2001 census to 25% in 2011. If the remaining 75% were believers, this leap in free-thinking would be significant but not sensational. But those who say they are religious are not faithful to their creeds, or not in any sense that the believers of the past would have recognised. Church attendance is in constant decline. Every year that passes sees congregations become smaller and greyer. As striking as the fall in religious observance is the public’s near total disregard for the teachings of the clerics and prelates, who could once claim to be society’s moral guides. …When millions of people tell the census takers they are “Christians”, therefore, they are muttering the title of a childhood story they only half remember. What is more, their spiritual “leaders” know it. …I can see no way of proving that allowing free debate proves happiness. It may well be that people are happier when their illusions and taboos remain intact. But if you prevent challenges to their beliefs, you are not treating them as adults; you are patting them on the head and saying that they cannot handle robust debates – infantilising them, in short. What applies to individuals applies to countries. Facing up to the truth about religious decline, and adapting our institutions accordingly, will doubtless cause pain to some. But it will allow Britain to become an honest and grown-up country that meets the first requirement of maturity by seeing itself as it is.”

Inspired by The Guardian ow.ly/gpMLI image source Twitter ow.ly/gpMKT

The rebirth of ethnic-based nationalisms (April 21st 2012)

Andrea Mammone the UK historian and political commentator has published an article on Aljazeera on the potential damage from the austerity measures titled Austerity v’s solidarity: Democratic legitimacy and Europe’s future. In the article Mammone states, “The rebirth of ethnic-based nationalisms, the rise of right-wing extremist feeling and Europhobia are a likely new threat and will be forged with mounting social and workers’ protests. Yet, the Euro-dream was specifically to bypass these nationalistic divisions and create an all-inclusive porous European citizenship. This led to a reconsideration of concepts such as space, borders and belonging – and is, with some difficulties, aiming to create a European public sphere. The “market” economy was only one (though very important) of the pillars that had to contribute to build all this, but it was not the unique one. “Solidarity” was the other (at least implicit) pilaster. It is known that Germany was in fact helped after the Second World War without imposing severe austerity plans. Some of the measures now imposed upon Greece and perhaps tomorrow upon Italy, Spain, Portugal or some central or eastern European nations, may be to some extent necessary – but some political-economic flexibility and democratic legitimacy are essential, too.”

Inspired by Andrea Mammone http://ow.ly/ahTpl image source twitter http://ow.ly/ahTAO

Glenn Edward Lee Beck the 47 year old US conservative television political commentator and former host of the Fox News Channel show titled after his name has commenced his alternative internet based show, after giving his last chalkboard sermon on Fox News. Beck’s Fox show initially had very high ratings, however his distorted and inflammatory rhetoric was too much for most viewers and eventually even for Fox. While Beck’s supporters praised him for defending the so called traditional American values, critics describe him as a promoter through incendiary rhetoric of marginal conspiracy theories. Beck prefers to describe his TV show as a movement to inspire people in their homes and neighborhoods; others describe him as a showman ranting and scrawling wacko theories on blackboards to resemble college lectures.

Inspired by Brian Stelter http://ow.ly/5wKDZ image source Gage Skidmore http://ow.ly/5wKKb