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One of the most powerful texts I picked up while at University was Emma Goldman’s essay on Marriage and Love I used it as one of the main thrusts of a second year project to prove that Robert Nozick wasn’t a “real” anarchist because he did not think about collective politics, and Goldman, with her anarcho-feminism truly was anarchistic because she took in to account female and family politics, collective human societal politics.
Of course, things have changed, somewhat if not enough, since Goldman was writing. In the Western world marriage is no longer – one hopes – about the buying and selling of women, child-baring beasts, family names, it no longer means a lack of female choice. It is about “love” (whatever that means… arf arf), about choosing a person to live with, about paying less tax, about making provision for your kids if one of you should die… Who says romance is dead? So, perhaps Goldman doesn’t apply any more?
Not so, still marriage is used to belittle women, even today. Apparently ‘all little girls dream of their wedding day’, they all know what dress they’ll be wearing (and it has to be a dress, the outfit, historically, of female repression and servitude), what the ‘colours’ will be. More and more money is spent on one day, with the average in Britain now being £25,000. This, in a generation that can’t afford their own houses, of course… One day costing that much, one day when you are no doubt too tired and too stressed out to enjoy it. All this rubbish is laid at the feet of women. They want marriage, to protect them and their babies (so, we’re still assuming we don’t have proper jobs and merely wish to cement our man so that your babies are his number one off-spring – all sounds a bit Tudor-ish to me, that) and men acquiesce, turning their eyes to heaven and shrugging with all their mates, because that’s what women want.
But surely almost everyone wants love? Companionship? Another half, partner, lover of some description? Even blokes seem to want that most of the time… Love is about support, love is about the collective, love is about society, love moves us away from selfishness.
Goldman says: ‘Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage?’
Love, in all its thousands of forms is life, then. The love for our children, the love for our pets, the love for our property. Hang on, that’s the problem love and property have been confused! At first women were the property, then it was about protection of property, joint property! And there it is, the reason I got married, despite being a anarcho-feminist. Having lived with my partner for four years, having been in love and secure for all that time, we got married to protect any children we might have from the ridiculous co-habitation laws in this country and because my in-laws expected it.
How hypocritical is that? Very. It is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever done, but as a friend, and anarchist, said to me on the day “love is good”, even love sanctioned by the state…
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The Greek myths have inspired many retellings through the centuries but may reach a whole new readership in Glyn Iliffe’s King of Ithaca. It is the first in a three part series based on the adventures of Odysseus and the characters from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and starts off with a young Odysseus travelling to Sparta to pay suit to Helen of Troy. Many adventures later he sails home to reclaim his homeland accompanied by his new wife Penelope. Plenty of action made it an enjoyable and at times exciting read and is sure to appeal to fans of Conn Iggulden and Valerio Massimo Manfredi.
King of Ithaca, Glyn Iliffe, Macmillan, £12.99, 9780230529236
• The Torbay Bookshop is one of the leading independent booksellers - visit it online.
Way back in the smog of time, this publication carried a regular column called Mill Communication, which was intended to “pick the juiciest tidbits from those Trago Mills/UKIP local newspaper adverts so you don’t have to”.
Seems we may need to do run it again to save citizens their sanity - we got this message through from Roberto Franceschini of the European Movement, Devon Branch:
“The Western Morning News published the European Movement letter of complaint against UKIP abusing their column in the weekly Trago Mills advertisement page. Unfortunately, they inserted a paragraph from the Government Agency Natural England on windpower which made nonsense of the text I sent them. So, today I sent WMN the letter below:
‘The following extraneous paragraph was slipped probably in error into my letter “No grandees in our European Movement” published on Wednesday July 2.
‘It said: “Natural England, the Government’s statutory adviser on wildlife and landscape protection, has promised to publish a map setting out suitable locations for onshore wind developments in England.”
‘This error made a nonsense of the complaint I was making about the irresponsible use of Trago’s advertisement in the WMN by UKIP. If Mr Challice and his party wish to make such statements at the very least they should be factually accurate.
‘I do not consider it good enough to provide the public with misleading slurs at the expense of a respected local organization that gives the public an opportunity to hear from a wide range of experts on many topical European issues.
‘The European Movement Devon Branch which has been operating in Devon since 1975 only wishes it could say the same for UKIP’s activities.”
The whole thing seems kooky to us here in the belly of the PRSD’s barometer of bilge, but before we enter into a debate about the end-of-pier routine that is UKIP – who are quite happy to bemoan the gravy train and yet pocket the cash – we thoroughly applaud Natural England’s approach to onshore wind maps.
He is the Music Man, and he comes from down your way… and he’s been daubing Dartington with what we all think but wouldn’t dream of saying – lest we offend those who could offer us a gig in the illustrious, former grassroots arts establishment.
The Biker Boy (or Cyclist Citizen depending on your view), who goes by the moniker of ‘the Music Man’, has been painting the slogan: “Vapid art from talent free bureaucrats from the vacuous elite,” on the new signage that’s been popping up around the estate.
So popular has the graffiti become that the next management focus group is looking into adopting it as part of the corporate identity for the Dartington Plus brand – the rationale being that it cuts through the confusion over what their core values are.
Alas, we jest - but only about the last bit.
We’re keen to hear from the Music Man - phone call or comment would do. And we’d like to hear what inspires him, and what the rest of you guys think about Dartington. Email info@peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk or fill in the comment box below.
Advocate of nuclear power, Giles Chichester MEP, has been invited by the Industry Forum to give the keynote address at their Meeting on Climate Change at the Chemical Industries Association in London today.
Giles, who oft remarks on how nuclear is the environmentally cleanest and best positioned to be the energy of choice now, is a member of the EU Temporary Committee on Climate Change which was created to ‘formulate an integrated approach to climate change policies’. So you’d guess his comments echo those from European Parliament discussions.
He is also coordinator of the the European People’s Party (not THAT sort of People’s) and European Democrats (not THOSE sort of Democrats) group on the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee. He is also chairman of the European Energy Forum and the Conservative Delegation’s Energy spokesman in the Parliament. But from what we can gather, he aint no lover of green.
Friday’s a funeral and Saturday’s bride, as the song goes, and we have hot news from the humanists that non-religious weddings, baby-namings and funerals are becoming far more popular in Devon.
On Thursday in Birdwood House, Totnes, local celebrants Jonathan Taylor, Stephen Peckham and Ann Mitchell described their role across the county, and the rising demand for non-religious ceremonies, and the happy Humanists got in touch to tell us what it’s all about.
“Humanist funerals, for example, are much more than simply an alternative to the default option of hymns and prayers,” Jonathan told the PRSD.
“They aren’t about beliefs, Humanist or otherwise, they are about the person who everyone is missing, and wants to remember clearly before letting his or her body be taken for burial or cremation. Families always tell me that they felt cared for and that, above all, the tribute to the person who died really captured his or her essence. A good funeral is meant to be a healing experience, and that is what humanist funeral celebrants concentrate on above all.”
“It is natural to want to celebrate the most important events in life with a special ceremony, usually involving speech, poetry, music, song, feasting and dancing”, said Anne.
“People have always needed to mark the important times in their lives. Humanists like to celebrate too, but prefer to do so in non-religious ceremonies, where they will not find themselves saying things they do not believe.”
“The British Humanist Association has a network of highly trained celebrants who work with people to create meaningful and moving – but non-religious – namings, weddings, affirmations or funerals, or any other ceremony, that is appropriate to the individuals’ needs and wishes,” Stephen explained.
“Our celebrations are always created for the people involved, so each one is unique and personal, with great scope for variation. Celebrants always discuss your own ideas and questions with you from the outset.”
For more information, contact:
Jonathan Taylor (funerals) 01803 865380, jmtaylor55@yahoo.co.uk;
Stephen Peckham (funerals) 01626 354547 s.j.peckham@btinternet.com;
Ann Mitchell (funerals, weddings, affirmations, namings) 01404 46766 ann.bhaceremony@btinternet.com
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The weekly technology column from those good people at Plymouth’s Orange Crate
Being accustomed to our compact desktop computers and even smaller laptops (and even smaller pdas), it’s easy to forget how it all began. Forget Charles Babbage and his complex 19th century tinkerings for a second – as important as they were, we’re going to bypass them and move forward a few years to something (a little) more recognizable…
In March 1951 the United States Census Bureau received a 13 ton consignment from Messrs Eckert and Mauchly, and the modern age of computing was officially born. The brilliantly old-school-sci-fi sounding Univac 1 is widely considered to be the first ever digital computer, and the beginning of an industry that was to become one of the biggest in the world.
For over five years it was the best large-scale data processing computer, capable of storing and manipulating both programs and data in the same memory space – a system on which all following computers have founded their basic architecture. The entire structure took over 35.5 square metres of floor space, and initially cost $159,000. A total of 46 of these beasts were eventually delivered to various US institutions and businesses, and due to increasing popularity the price eventually rose to around $1,500,000. Not only were these the pinnacle in technology at the time, private ownership of one would have amply shown off any enterprise’s power and wealth.
Fast forward 25 years to another defining moment in IT history… Steve Wozniak, an employee of Hewlett-Packard, desperately wanted to build his own personal computer but was restricted by budgetary constraints. Eventually he and his associate Steve Jobs built a custom computer and decided to sell it under the name ‘Apple-1′ through their new company, Apple. We all know that they went on to become pioneers in computer technology (and still are today), but the ground-breaking attributes of the Apple-1 were that not only did it make use of a keyboard, it was also one of the first personal computers to be sold fully assembled and not as a kit.
The Apple-1 sold for $666.66 at the time, a one-third markup on the $500 Apple sold it to retailers for (and because Wozniak liked repeating digits, so the history books say).
Fast forward another 20 years and it becomes obvious how fast the IT world had changed. By 1995 companies such as Intel and Microsoft had enveloped large portions of the various industry quarters, making it extremely difficult for original, rival ideas to be successfully. One such example comes from the relative failure of Be Inc. A new company founded by the ex-manager of Apple’s French subsidiary, they developed a fairly advanced machine that didn’t run on one of the mainstream Windows or Mac OS systems. Aimed mainly at software developers, it was designed to be a primary alternative to the big boys of the time.
Sadly, due mainly to it’s lack of compatibility with anything else of the time, it was largely rejected and fewer than 2000 machines were manufactured over a brief two-year period. By 2001 Be Inc. had sold their intellectual rights and gone out of business. Long gone seemed the days where Bill Gates started an empire from his garage, or Wozniak and Jobs hand built their computers one by one and ended up as billionaires.
This is only an extremely small clipping from the history of computers, an area which is really a lot more interesting than you may think. With grand ideas, meteoric rises, and huge failures, there’s a hundred stories and sub-stories to be told. Perhaps the greatest thing is that the majority of these pioneers are still alive and well and plying their trade.
For more information, check out the Old Computers site. Even if you’re really not interested, the antiquated pictures might supply some cheap laughs!
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If yesterday’s cycling fun in Exeter is to make more a lasting impression (saddle soreness notwithstanding), then it might be advisable for all those peddle pushers to freewheel it to the Exeter Beyond the Car talk by Peter Lipman, organised by Low Carbon Exeter, which takes place at the Music Room, Exeter Central Library, on Wednesday July 2 at 7pm.
“Peter Lipman,” says the press release, “works on practical projects dealing with sustainable transport at Sustrans and is also chair of trustees of the Centre for Sustainable Energy and the Transition Network.”
And if the 350 people who attended the Cycle Sunday event at Exeter’s Flowerpot playing fields is anything to go on, there should be support for at least one non-motorised form of transport.
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We got notification from Equality South West that on Wednesday, June 24 Harriet Harman, Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, is expected to make an announcement on the Single Equality Bill.
Those people of the equality told the PRSD: “You will recall Equality South West has made submissions to the consultation stage of the Bill, which we hope will tighten up and simplify existing equalities legislation.
“We have also expressed our hopes the Bill will see the introduction of mandatory pay audits to tackle the gender pay gap, legislation to extend the statutory duty on public bodies to include age, religion or belief and sexual orientation, and that companies that discriminate against employees will be penalised in the same way as would a company which flouts health and safety laws.”
Welcome to the People's Republic of South Devon. Your subscription will begin with the next newsletter. Keep up to date by visiting the blog regularly and make sure your voice is heard. Many thanks, The People's Republic of South Devon.
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Welcome to the People's Republic of South Devon. Your subscription will begin with the next newsletter. Keep up to date by visiting the blog regularly and make sure your voice is heard. Many thanks, The People's Republic of South Devon.
Accessibility Options
To adjust the text size of this site please click the icons below.
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