What You Call “Infighting”, I Call Legitimate Dissent (video transcript)

Hello ladies, enbies and gentlemen.

Legitimate dissent is vitally important to any community that doesn’t wish to be bound by groupthink.

A group in which people are keeping their true feelings repressed for the supposed greater good of the community is a group whose unity is superficial, not substantial.

Such a group probably shouldn’t really be a group and would be better off splitting off into smaller groups that reflect their mindset more accurately.

If a group wants to increase its membership (formally or informally) then they need to put the effort in convincing people of the validity of their group, not create some false impression of unity by process of shaming dissenters.

It’s also worthy of note that bigger groups aren’t necessarily better groups.

As Margaret Mead said:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

I’m not particularly convinced of the contrasting notion: that a large group of thoughtless, reactionaries can bring about effective change… though such groups do seem very adept at obstructing it.

You can call legitimate dissent “infighting” if you so desire, but that doesn’t make it any the less legitimate.

That’s something you have to demonstrate, through argumentation, not through dismissal.

Thanks for watching.

Dead Wolf Club – Healer (review)

Dead Wolf Club, for those unaware, are a rather intriguing and more importantly rather good band hailing from London.

I first became aware of this band when they played at The Compass in Chester, after which I promptly purchased their eponymous CD.

Needless to say, I was rather excited to hear they were returning to play the same venue again about a year later, armed with their new 4 track EP, available on glorious green 10” vinyl no less.

For me, Dead Wolf Club achieve the seemingly contradictory feat of being both energetic and shouty while also being contemplative and thought provoking, by which I mean I’d be equally at home sweating in a mosh pit at one of their shows as I would be staring out the window contemplating life, the universe and everything while listening to the same songs crackle out of my vinyl player.

Another appealing quality of Dead Wolf Club is that, in this the age of super polished pristine production, they are refreshingly raw, bringing to mind the glory days of 1980s noise-pop.

The combination of jangly guitars over energetic bass and drums reminds me a little of Dark Star, with vocals alternating seamlessly between the soothing and the shouty, perhaps best evidenced on opening track ‘Flood’ which builds from the former to the latter.

The same stands true for the guitars, which alternate between the jangly and the fuzzy.

All-in-all, I’d highly recommend ‘Healer’ to anyone looking for new music to get into, and I’d recommend checking out Dead Wolf Club on the live circuit if you haven’t already.

The End Of The Century Is Not Soon Enough (video transcript)

Hello ladies, enbies and gentlemen.

This is a video about the important issue of anthropocentric climate change.

If you don’t know much about this issue, New Scientist have an article entitled ‘Climate Change: A guide for the perplexed’ in which they explain the situation, including dealing with some of the most common myths about climate change.

See below for link.

Recently at their 41^st summit, the G7, a forum of the world’s seven leading industrial nations announced plans to phase out fossil fuel by the end of the century.

While I’d like to be happy about this, with the window of opportunity closing as fast as it is, it seems to me the end of the century simply is not soon enough.

Back in 2006, NASA’s climate expert James Hansen said:

“We have a very short window of opportunity to address climate change. No more than a decade at the most.” (Sawin, 2007).

Biologist and environmental activist Beth Sawin likens climate change to a housefire or to an infection or to cancer, in that it is something that can be dealt with in its early stages, but if it is not dealt with, it will get to the stage where it will be too late for human intervention (Sawin, 2007).

I’ll post links below for anyone who is interested.

Thanks for watching.

New Scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11462-climate-change-a-guide-for-the-perplexed.html#.VZcLiqTZWrY

Sawin E. (2007). Climate Change: A Window Of Opportunity. Climate Interactive. https://www.climateinteractive.org/about/staff/beth-sawin-2/climate-change-a-window-of-opportunity/

My theme tune ‘Hey Hi Hey’ and other music from my channel is available at: http://captainandy.bandcamp.com