Gods & Monsters

Road To Somewhere Else

By Daniel Margrain

During the pre-enlightenment before science, the earth was widely perceived as a stable force at the centre of the universe overseen by the purveyors of God who envisaged humanity as being fixed and set in stone. The appetite for tasting the forbidden fruit that intellectual curiosity implies, was widely regarded as being concomitant to bringing forth evil into the world.

Thus theologians rationalized the tendency to disobey God as a primordial human urge that had to be controlled by a deity through which wrongdoers were required to seek salvation in order to absolve themselves of their intellectual impulses. As theology eventually began to accede to scientific inquiry, this salvation correspondingly began to take root in a system of ideas embodied in the philosophical writings of Aristotle.

Dovetailed

The positions in society that individuals were perceived to have naturally occupied, all dovetailed together, according to Aristotle, to…

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Slave Nation – Dorset Eye

http://www.dorseteye.com/north/articles/slave-nation

Labour pledged to scrap tuition fees and they will do. Ignore the Tory lies

http://www.huckmagazine.com/perspectives/opinion-perspectives/labour-tuition-fees/

What an Artificial Intelligence Researcher Fears about AI – Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-an-artificial-intelligence-researcher-fears-about-ai/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sa-editorial-social&utm_content=image-post&utm_term=tech_partner_text_free&sf97992810=1

Corbyn and May’s final #PMQs of the summer was nearly shut down today (Wed 19/07/17) But you won’t see it on the #BBC

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/07/19/corbyn-mays-final-pmqs-summer-nearly-shut-today-wont-see-bbc-video/

Is Guaranteed Income ( #basicincome ) for All the Answer to Joblessness and Poverty? – Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-guaranteed-income-for-all-the-answer-to-joblessness-and-poverty/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sa-editorial-social&utm_content=link-post&utm_term=policy_news_text_free

WRAG/sanctions: the definitive answer (as much as there is one)

As someone who’s just been declared “fit-for-work” after a WCA (exactly 2yrs after last) now awaiting the outcome of the Mandatory Reconsideration the only thing that’s consistent in all of this is that common sense or logic plays no part. Those making decisions about people’s lives are totally unqualified and seem not to care the misery they’re causing. To get a positive outcome requires a real effort and just not giving up. Which when you’re ill with a mental / physical illness isn’t as easy as it sounds. I truly believe those that thought this all up have a really scary kind of illness. Mx

The SKWAWKBOX

As promised last night, the SKWAWKBOX has been looking further into conflicting reports from DWP insiders concerning the WRAG (work-related activity group) category into which the government, more or less arbitrarily, places some disability benefit claimants and the possibility of sanctions after a fixed period of two years under the Universal Credit (UC) system if claimants have not found work.

Some activists insisted that this was part of the UC system and this was initially confirmed by long-term DWP employees. Others subsequently disputed it. The only thing all were agreed on was that the rules are ill-conceived and extremely confusing.

The SKWAWKBOX contacted a PCS union official who specialises in UC for clarification and received this response:

I’ve been looking at the regulations and I can’t find anything that refers specifically to a fixed time limit in which to find employment.

The ‘disabled’ argument, as I’m sure you are aware…

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