Sermon from Barchester

The Warden

A Tudor foundation established a charitable hospital for 12 poor men with £12000 pa long ago.  £850 now has been assigned to the warden after years of 'creep' have tipped the balance in favour of the rich and powerful. (I imagine the place as Leycester Hospital in Warwick.)

An honest reforming lawyer brings an action to challenge the situation.

The Warden is a goodly priest and it dawns on him that he has been defrauding the poor for year without really thinking  He steps down, much to the annoyance of his archdeacon who would prefer no threat to the status quo.  The warden is caught by a no-win situation, as both sides feel that it is vital to succeed.  The lawyer however, on the behest of the warden's beautiful daughter, drops his case.  The warden steps down on grounds of conscience.  The Hospital falls into decline.  Everyone has lost.  Even the old men of the hospital start dying due to the strain.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  A systemic perspective on 'change' foresees knock-on effect.  The conservative forces of inertia resist change, and even positive change can reap negative consequences also.  I think of the pain involved in almost 100 years of suffering following the French revolution.

Another example: if the monarchy in the united kingdom were to be abolished, what would the knock-on effects be?  The monarchic system may be anachronistic in this day and age.  A system that is the 'king pin' holding together most of the discrimination we observe in our society, from racism, sexism, classism, etc.  A system to fit the idolatry that we see in our 'celebratory obsessed' culture.  But then I would not put much in the 'republican hat' if it were to be passed round.  The upset change to this status quo would affect would inflict too much trauma at present I fear. An then Harry FitzWindsor goes and proposes to Meghan Markle breaking most the rules in the royal rule book.  Not bad.

Victimless Joke

There is no such thing as a victimless joke.

Last night Alexi Sayle joked that from Thursday to Tuesday a small section of the middle class population become amazingly knowledgeable thanks to radio 4
's In our Time with Melvin Bragg.  Usually it's 'String Theory' or 'Spinoza' or the significance of 'Jane Eyre', but only until Tuesday, when retention in the memory fails.  Yes- that's me Alexi.



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Yuval Noah Harari

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari

The book is "Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind."

What is the evidence that humanoids have lived on this planet for 700,000 years?  Humans as we know them fro 20,000 years?  What about the greater overlap of time when Sapiens, Neanderthals and Homo Erectus lived together?  Was this analogous to Chimpanzees and Bonobos, where Chimps are lively, aggressive, intelligent and Bonobos are placid, matriarchal and less intelligent? 

Harari describes the various revolutions - agricultural, were the exchange was more control, predictability, planned economy, in exchange for a more relaxed lifestyle. 

Then navigating the major international changes.  The end of thousands if years of slave based economies.  Industrialisation, international emancipation of women after many many thousand years of oppression.  The end of the dominance of religion across the world.  The rise of 'isums'. 

He describes explanations based on global systemic changes, like paradigm shifts, working at many levels all at the same time. 

Western slavery came to an end with a combination of moral persuasion, changes in economic profit, slave resistance,  mechanisation (machines are cheaper than people.)  Harai points out, there was no deliberate subjugation of African for being African, it was to do with the lowness of capitalistic forces.  If I want to make a profit, I must cut my costs to beet competition, therefore I have to use slaves.  Just as empires used to say "you think we are bad, you should see what they do," capitalists say "we have to operate this way, or we won't survive, so we do it not as badly as the others."

Likewise with women's emancipation, within 100 years the whole of Europe and most of the world was treating half it's population with far more equality than nit had ever done.  Why?  The necessity for 'home maker' passed into history with organised western style states.  Women were needed in the work force.  Machines could take on the roles women were told was for them to do. 

Harari speaks kindly of religion, but sees it as part of an evolution of 'sense making' and shared identity and meaning.'  He rightly wonders whether future generations will want what is on offer now.  I feel he is most supportive of Buddhist creeds and behaviours.

I appreciate Harari contribution.  I like the holistic broad brush strokes.  I feel it is a book written from the top of a high pillar, with the expanse of time stretch out. 

The joy of Omnipotence

Charlie and Jill called round last night to greet Margaret on her birthday (+1 day).  We discussed the Omnipotence paradox.

Here is my stab at it.

Can an omnipotent being create an object too heavy to lift?

This is a question about defining limits.  I am reminded of the famous 'monkey trap',  Peanuts are placed in a thin necked jar.  The monkey sees the peanuts and likes them.  The monkey puts its arm into jar.  It takes a handful and discovers now it can not remove its fist from the jar.  The monkey thinks about letting go of the peanuts, but can not bear to do so.  It is now stuck.

My answer is that I cannot think of a solution, because I have limits.  I am aware that I cannot answer this question.  An omnipotent being has unlimited capacity and therefore is able to conceive of the answer to this paradox.

All I know is that I cannot - God can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox

Of killing the thing you love

OLIVIA

Even what it please my lord, that shall become him.

DUKE ORSINO

Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death, Kill what I love?--a savage jealousy That sometimes savours nobly. But hear me this: Since you to non-regardance cast my faith, And that I partly know the instrument That screws me from my true place in your favour, Live you the marble-breasted tyrant still; But this your minion, whom I know you love, And whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly, Him will I tear out of that cruel eye, Where he sits crowned in his master's spite. Come, boy, with me; my thoughts are ripe in mischief: I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love, To spite a raven's heart within a dove.

VIOLA

And I, most jocund, apt and willingly, To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.

Twelfth Night - Act V Scene I - William Shakespeare

And all men kill the thing they love,
  By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
  Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
  The brave man with a sword!

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Oscar Wilde

Day One- Leicestershire round

Official start from Ashby Foville to Thorpe Sachville.

Ashby Folville, a sweet Leicestershire village with a picturesque cricket pitch.  Also has some fine modern houses.  The church has a Folville tomb effigy of a knight with a lance sticking out of him, a graphic illustration of his death.  The route begins by walking though someones garden.  Then though horse county up and under the old railway, to Thorpe Sachville.  From here the route goes though the 'Hall's' parkland, into a labyrinth where the route magically revealed itself though the trees, step by step.  Then alone a single track lane, over a very high railways bridge, and back down across the fields past fishing lakes, across a cabbage patch, to Ashby Folville.

The is the route around Leicester.

Today's walk went north from Thorpe Sachville and back to Asby Folville
 via a single lane road- then route across the fields. 

View of Ashby Folville as we returned.

The end

The trees have it